Junction
by SDI hyper
Summary: The story of FF8 with a twist, Ifrit x Squall, Zell x Bahamut, Nida X Chocoboy.
1. Default Chapter

Final Fantasy 8: Junction

By: SDI Hypervelocity

Chapter 1- Ifrit

The heat was starting to affect him, he was needless to say, hot, already becoming sweaty and tired. Squall's first SeeD field exam wasn't as easy as he anticipated. A small rock bridge leading to a small peninsula surrounded by a sea of molten rock in the back of the fire cave. This was his first real challenge, in battle against the Fire guardian force Ifrit, and Quistis by his side helping him.

He was tired and beaten with a few scars and bruises and Ifrit showed small signs of giving up. "2 minutes Squall!" Quistis yelled to him, tightening her hold around the whip she used as a weapon.

Squall gave her a small acknowledgment before shifting his focus back on his enemy "Ok."

Ifrit wasted no time, soaring through the air at Squall and slashing at him with his claws, ripping his shirt and drawing blood on Squall's chest. Squall stumbled backwards and winced from the pain, regaining himself in time to catch Ifrit's second strike again, this time Squall blocked it with his sword, and pushed him back with the dull side of the blade.

Then he lifted one hand and countered with a spell "Ice, a thick sickle of Ice came raining down on Ifrit's head. It was enough to knock him out of the air, sending him falling to the ground with a through chill his whole body that inadvertently forced him to let out a violent spasm. "Impudent fools." Ifrit growled lightly, only the slightest clinch of his fist sent a blaze of flames over Squall's body, burning him with a fire spell. Even when the fire had gone, his skin still burned, a burn that would take hours to subside on its own.

But he didn't have to wait that long, relief from the pain soon came when Quistis cast a cure spell. A blue light shined over Squall's body, neutralizing the ache and mending the burns. Then another bolder of Ice appeared above Ifrit created by cold winds, crashing down on to his body with an forced growl, Quistis had also used an ice spell. The fire Guardian force could barely stand the cold anymore, this battle had been going on for quite a while (Longer then he would have liked to admit), he had plenty of fight left in him, but no will to fight any longer.

"For me to lose to a human..." Ifrit snorted, looking down at the Squall and Quistis from where he floated a few feet above. He couldn't help feeling weak, for a fight to persist like this against _humans_... "Very well..." He sighed defeatedly, "I will join you."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

With the fight over, Squall had only a minute left to evacuate the cave, if he wanted to have an actual score on his SeeD Field exam he had to do so. He ran fearlessly past anything willing to block his path, sometimes almost running head first in to the monsters that dwelled in the Fire Cave.

The light at the entrance seemed to come quickly, after about a minute Squall saw the Balamb Guards at the entrance that he met before. Which was his que to stop running... I...made it...'

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"There isn't much time, but let me make go over this real quick." Quistis stopped Squall just before they left the fire cave, almost forgetting that this was something she needed to tell him about being his instructor and all. "Good, you got yourself a GF. If you junction that GF, you'll be able to use the Elem-J ability. Here's an explanation on Elements." Quistis gave him a short explanation on junctioning with GF before they started back. "There's a lot of Fire elemental monsters here, so junction Blizzard to your Elem-Atk. You'll have an easier time with Fire elemental enemies..."

It wasn't a long trip back to the Garden; it could be seen clearly from the Fire Cave. Meaning it was only a short walk until the two entered through the main gate that lay next to the parking lot drive way. Quistis stopped him when they got there, knowing that she had to tell him something else, something important...she just couldn't remember what. "Well done Squall." She complemented, lifting her hand to her chin and tilting her head upward as she did when she thought. "Let's see... I thought there was something else I needed to go over with you before you take the SeeD exam... Oh yes! Taking care of your GF. This is something you have to watch out for."

Quistis explained some basics about taking care of a GF, it didn't't take long for her to finish. "Now change into your uniform and assemble at the 1F Lobby." Quistis called back her final instruction as she started walking off toward the lobby. Squall in turn headed back to his dorm and in to his room.

! - ! - !

He stripped himself of the short brown jacket he wore, hanging it up carefully beside his bead. His mind started to wander back to Ifrit as he stared out of the window, Shiva and Quezacotl were junctioned to Quistis and she had some experience with GF. But this was his first time, he didn't't know what to expect, and for the most part he didn't't know what it really was exactly.

Squall sat down on his bed and pulled off his pants, still in deep thought. Then he reached over to get his uniform hanging from the wall next to his gunblade case. There was no use sitting here thinking about it, he had to do it one way or another, but exactly how was he suppose to do it. That was a problem... He started to think on it specifically as he finished putting on the uniform.

He din't have to look too far for the answer, some where in his mind… He could _feel_ Ifrit, there. From there it was easy, it was similar to trying to remember something. And the actual Junction was like when you actual remember it, surprisingly simple, he figured Ifrit was doing most of the work for him.

'Squall?' He heard the GF's voice inside of his head, it made him jump a little...this was knew

"Ifrit?" Squall called out, looking around the room questioningly.

Ifrit grunted, he could tell by the way Squall was acting,'First time?'

Squall nodded "Yeah…"

'Well don't make your self look foolish by _talking_.'

It took Squall a mmoment to understand what he was talking about, he figured it out that he didn't have to use his voice, but just speak in his mind since that was what Ifrit was doing.

His mind dwelling on the mechanics of this dwelling, Squall checked over his school uniform before heading out of his shared room in to the long hallway leading to the circular Lobby. Shortly after he past the Training Center he heard Quistis call him. "Squall! Over here!" Following the sound of her voice, he walked over to his instructor who was leading against the railing with a clip board in her hand. Now she was dressed in a gray uniform... "I'll be announcing the squad assignments for the exam now. Let's see... You'll be with..." She lifted her index finger to adjust her glasses before flipping a page in the clipboard. "Zell Dincht. Quite a lively fellow."

Squall was already starting to get annoyed just thinking about it, noticed by Ifrit. "Lively? He's just loud. Can I switch members?" Squall asked, his mood reflected in his voice.

"I'm afraid that's not possible." Quistis told him objecting, glancing over Squall's shoulder at the sight of something familiar, it was Zell a small distance away. He wasn't really paying attention "Over here, Zell!"

Squall glanced over his shoulder, he could see Zell practicing, throwing feign punches and kicks with long since acquired skill. He performs a cartwheel and followed with two agile back flips, landing with his back to them. Finally he turned around with a quick smile as he walked over to where Squall was.

"Whoa! I'm with you?" Zell seemed surprised when Quistis had told him the arrangements, but dismissing it as simple odds he rubed his left hand on his pants leg, and then extends it greetingly to shake... Seeing Squall refused to shake his hand, he retracted it and moved quickly on to another subject. "You don't get along with Seifer, do you? Heard he whooped you pretty bad this morning"

"We weren't fighting. We were training." Squall told him firmly, making it clear.

A silent Ifrit suddenly spoke up 'You lost?'

(I didn't't lose, we were training, that's all.) Squall told him.

'…' Ifrit was silent again, it was unclear to Squall what he was thinking of.

"I bet you he doesn't think so." Zell said with a clearly disbelieving tone "Look, Seifer's just being a pain in the ass. All you have to do is ignore him."

"That's none of your business." Squall said coldly.

Seeing where this conversation was going, Quistis interrupted "None of your business? Ahem...Excuse me, but...That Seifer you're talking about...He's your squad leader."

Zell flinched "SAY WHAT?"

"It can't be changed." Quistis said simply. "Seifer! Are you here?"

Just as Quistis had thought Seifer was near by, arriving moments later along with Fujin and Raijin.

(Fujin and Raijin tagging along as usual...) Squall thought (Guess that makes up the whole

Disciplinary committee.)

"You're the squad leader. Good luck to you." Quistis informed him.

"...Instructor. I hate it when people wish me luck. Save those words for a bad student that needs them, eh?" Seifer replied smartly.

"**OK **then. Good luck, _Seifer_." Quistis shot back with the same smart tone.

A small laugh could be heard from Zells direction, farther annoying Seifer. He lleaned back a little and said "Add Instructor Trepe to the list." to Raijin. Zell and Quistis both rolled there eyes.

(The list...? What is it?) Squall seemed to be the only one that actually thought about it.

'He's just using it to intimidate you, Zell and annoy the instructor, there is no list.' Ifrit reassured him, he could tell that from a simple look. He also picked up who was who from the previous conversation, apparently he had been paying attention.

"Well then. You're all assigned to Squad B, I'll be the instructor in charge." Quistis announced "Teamwork is of the utmost importance. Let's get through this exam, everyone."

Seifer intervened again"Listen up! _Teamwork_ means staying out of my way It's a Squad B rule, don't you forget it!" He said arrogantly, Zell obviously became annoyed and angry with Seifer for his presumptuousness, unable to understand how _he_ could be the leader of their group, or any for that matter.

The head master soon entered to see everyone off. "Everyone here? It's been a while, everyone. How's everyone doing?..." Seeing no one was particularly in the mood, Cid skipped past pleasantries. "This exam will involve 12 members from Squads A through D, you will be proceeding to a real battlefield. Obviously, the battles are for real. Life and death, victory and defeat, honor and disgrace... Each of these go hand in hand, there's only one way or the other. How 'bout it? Are you still up for this?... You will be accompanied by 9 See D members, should you fail, these members shall get the job done. They always do... Well, that's one less worry on your mind. The pride of Balamb Garden! The elite mercenary force, SeeD! Learn from them, obey their commands and accomplish the mission. Prove yourself worthy of becoming a member of SeeD. Best of luck."


	2. Chapter 2 Field Test

Chapter 2- Field Test

The members of Squad B met in the Parking lot and loaded in to a large Yellow SUV, that after which exited the Garden and headed for Balamb. It was a short ride to the docks prior to that, a large vessel was waiting for them. It resembled a tank on water, but on the top instead of a Cannon was a large Assault Riffle, feeling rather safe, everyone loaded in to the vessel, Xu was inside already awaiting their arrival. When everyone was settled she gave the briefing of the mission.

Eventually they reached Dollet, they were to secure Central Square, a very simple but boring job...

Zell, Seifer, and Squall sat around the fountain in Central Square, waiting… Zell looked up at the Comm Tower in the distance. "Hey? What is that up there?" he asked.

With boredom overwhelmingly growing Seifer glanced toward what Zell had indicated, an idea forming in his head "Our next destination." Seifer smirked, his eyes shifting to Zell.

"But that's against orders!"

"Weren't you just saying how bored you were?"

"Squall!"

Zell to Squall for support on the matter but all he said was "I stand by the captain's decision."

"...Captain's decision?" Seifer looked at Squall with agrowing smirk "You want to wreak some havoc too, don't you?" he inquired in an impish voice

"It's a good opportunity to test out my training." Squall said plainly, "Thanks to you, I feel like I can take on anyone. Even if they do fight dirty, like you."

Seifer took some pride in that. "You'll thank me when the time comes."

Zell looked to Squall then looked at Seifer "What the hell..." He was surrounded. "I thought you guys didn't get along? You're like, all buddy-buddy now. Listen. This ain't no ordinary battle. It's an exam, an important one. I'm tellin' ya, we have to stick to orders."

"Then you stay here. I don't need any boy scouts." Seifer said walking off.

"What was that?" Zell yelled, his anger flaring up as he lifted his fist.

"Don't take him seriously, Zell." Squall sighed with a shake of his head. "Seifer, if we're gonna go, let's hurry."

"The enemy is headed for the facility. We, Squad B, are to secure the

summit. Move out!" Seifer ordered, heading for the hill road leading to the Tower.

! - ! - !

! - !- !

Squall and Zell stood with a the new and very cheery girl Seiphie, at the top of Dollet's communication tower after a hard battle . "Squad B captain? S'cuse me! I have new orders! All SeeD members and SeeD candidates are to withdraw at 1900 hours. Assemble at the shore!" She relayed.

"Withdraw? There are still enemies around!" Seifer shouted.

"I know, but I'm just a messenger." Seiphie told him, shrugging. "1900 hours... We only have 30 minutes! You got 30 minutes to get down to the shore! Better run" Seifer took off , heading for the lift and leaving everyone else behind.

"Heeey wait for us!" Seiphie shouted, but he was already gone and the lift was returning.

"Who the hell dose he think he is!" Zell grunted, taking one look back a Major Biggs and Lt. Wedge of the Galbadian army. "He can't just leave us here:

"Why don't you ask him? Let's go!" Squall prompted, leading the way out now that Seifer was gone. The three stepped on the lift and Seiphie hit a switch, causing it to descend. It quickly reached ground level and the three hurried outside.

'Squall! Above you!' Ifrit's voice suddenly shouted.

A shadow was cast them just as Ifrit prompted, Squall looked up to the source... "?" There was nothing but a large shadow on the outer part of the satellite dish... The shadow suddenly dropped down, and a large machine landed in front of them, shaking the ground violently and knocking Seiphie off balance. If Ifrit hadn't said anything the machine would have landed on him and he would have been crushed.

(What is that thing!)

'Be careful it's about to attack.'

It was a large mechanical spider with 4 legs instead of 8, the body was covered in a thick alloy that hid other weapons. But it's main feature was the nano-machines in side of it that allowed it to repair itself. "Great, Seifer runs off just before…" Zell mumbled, backing away from the machine nervously.

A panel on it's side flipped down reviling a Glatting gun, the machine targeted the three and started firing. "Whoa!" Seiphie jumped out of the line of fire as the bullets tore through the walls of the Comm. Tower.

Zell dived to the ground, rolling out the way and jumping to his feet when it passed over. "What the hell is that!" he yelled, looking at it carefully before he got ready to attack. Another round of bullets fired at Squall, he quickly lifted his gunblade across his chest to blocked them, hearing the small chime as the used ammo struck the blade hit the ground.

Damnit He quickly charged at the machine. lifting the sword over his solder and slashing it with his gunblade, the blow was enough to barely cut through the alloy shell.

Zell followed with a spell, in an instant a bolt of white lighting streaked down in a flash from the calm skies, striking the machine. The mechanical body was electrified, making the X-ATM092 shake a little. Seiphie drew a spell from the Machine while it was distracted, and cast it against it. A considerably stronger thunder spell roared from the skies instead, a bolt double the size crashed on to the X-ATM0982 covering it's whole torso in white lighting.

The machine fell to the ground, it's legs ccollapsing. "Let's get the hell outta here!" Zell yelled, Seiphie and Squall took the hint and ran from the large machine while they had the chance. Turning away Zell glanced back at the spider like machine when he heard a strange sound "Huh, is it repairing it self?"

The large gash Squall had created in it's alloy body was gone... An already tired Seiphie shook her head with small pants, she had just come from a hard battle, she didn't want to go into another "No more!" She shouted.

"There is no end to this." Squalls voice held the spark of realization, waving for them to hurry up. Under his direction the group ran up the small stone road, going up a bit of a hill.

'Squall! Look out it's coming again' Ifrit warned.

The Machine jumped up the hill with ease, almost landing on top of them, they only had a slight lead on it... The road curved pursing just behind them. The ground rumbled as the X-ATM0982 finally came from around the curved and came after it's acquired targets with more speed now that it had a strait and unhindered path going down the mountain. It became quickly apparent that the machine was a lot faster then they were.

They made it on the stone bridge at and... the metal sound stopped. "Huh?...What?" Squall stopped so abruptly that he nearly fell, pausing for a few moments while his other continued on to look back, the machine was gone. (Where is it? I just heard it...?)

'Above you!'

Squall looked up and saw the large machine in the air above them. He stepped forward just far enough to grab Seiphie and Zell by the shoulder and pull them back with no time to spare. The weapon landed only inches from his face, making his gasp and stumble back while Zell cried out with a yelp of surprise. They turned back and the machine jumped in to the air again. Squall pulled the group back and quickly changed direction, rrunning forward, making it safely off the bridge, just as the Spider landed behind.

The there had made it safely down to Central Square, hoping to lose it in streets of Dollet. But it caught up with them, and was gaining speed on them fast.

'You have to slow that thing down or youll never get away.' Ifrit said.

(How!)

'Leave it to me!'

Squall stopped, putting a halt to Zell and Seiphie in turn. (Ifrit, what are you going to do?) His question was answered when they were pulled in to a sub dimension that a GF used to keep humans out of range of their attacks.

With a loud rumble, Ifrit burst through the stone ground, standing atop a large burning meteor, glowing with red embers from the flames contained internally. The sky darken as he rose higher and higher, until the momentum that carried the large rock up to that high was expelled, the burning rock stayed suspended in the air as Ifrit above it. He cuffed both of his hands together and stretched his body back, then hammered the burning rock with all his strength and a ferocious roar. It hurtled to the ground, crashing in to the enemy at tremendous speed then it exploded violently in a sea of rock and flames, then suddenly faded as quickly as it had appeared.

Squall, Zell and Seiphie returned to this dimension, and all evidence of Ifrit or the burning meteor was gone. Except for the burned and broken machine that had taken the damage laying sparking and dismantled in front of them. The metal was melted in most places, and it had collapsed on the ground, giving them the opening they needed "Let's go!" Squall called out, louder than usual.

The group hurried through the streets, coming in sight of the dock at the next intersection where the boat that had carried them there was waiting, it didn't't seem like they would have anymore trouble from the X-ATM0982... but as soon as they passed the bar, the sound of heavy metal striking against concrete returned, faster then ever. With in a few seconds it was behind them, crushing anything in it's path. Zell resisted the urge to look back, just running as fast as he could forward "Damnit, we'll never get rid of this thing!"

"We don't have too, just run!" Squall notice the speed difference between his two teammates and himself, The beach was just down a pair of steps and Zell and Seiphie where already far ahead of him, sprinting for the boat, climbing jumping in side and to safety. With the time limit having expired 30 seconds ago the back gate started to lift close, but the X-ATM0982 was still on a lagging Squalls tail.

Zell waved his arm yelling "HURRY UP!" to encourage him to move faster, but with the large machine sill chasing him, catching up, he wouldn't make it.

No...!'

Quistis hurried to the top of the boat, manning a large assault riffle and firing a stream of hevay armor piercing rounds at the machine.

The X-ATM0982 was immediately slowed by the torrent bullets tearing into it's metal armor, giving Squall enough reprieve to making in to the vessel. The rounds continued to fire in a barrage into the Mecca, until Quistis struck it's engine and the fuel cells behind it. The engine combusted, taking the whole machine with it in a massive explosion, causing a rain of burring machine parts to scatter across Dollet's beaches


	3. Chapter 3 The First Night

Chapter 3- The First Night

Squall finally returned to his room around 9:00, tired and ready to fall face down in the bed. But that would have to wait, at least until he got his clothes off. He sat down on the bed and slowly took off his pants, then stripping himself of his jacket, until his was wearing nothing more than a pair of boxers and a white shirt."..." With a relieved sigh Squall let his clothing scatter around the ground figuring he'd pick them up in the morning, instead he laid down and closed his eyes, waiting for sleep to come.

Unfortunately it didn't come as easily as he planed. Though he _was_ tired, he just couldn't seem fall asleep. He waited like that, for at lest an hour or so it seemed to him, his sense of time seemed to be going... Finally he gave up, maybe he wasn't really tired, or maybe it was something else preventing him from sleeping...like the junction he still had for instance.

(Ifrit?)

Ifrit was there as he expected, ready and alert, or at lest more so then him.'Yes?'

He had a few questions in his mind…

(Did I wake you?)

'No'

He started to wonder if GFs went to sleep when they were still junctioned. And Ifrit was able to pick up this like he was most other things Squall had been thinking since they first junctioned. I...can't sleep when I'm junctioned, a junction keeps my mind alert.' Maybe it went both ways...

(What is it like being junctioned?)

'Do you really want to know?' Most humans became...uneasy about farther junctions when they realized how it worked.

Squall wasn't one of those types of people, he was genuinely interested in the way this junction thing was possible. (Sure.)

'It's like being inside your mind... Technically it _was_ being inside his mind.

Interesting. (You mean...you can see everything that's going on inside me head?) Squall inquired? He opened his eyes and stared up at the ceiling, watching the small outlines along the wall caused by the moon like shining through his blinds.

Ifrit thought about it, a small skepticism in his voice when he spoke "No not all the time... not things you don't want me to." Most things in Squall's head that he didn't want Ifrit to see were things no one knew about him, things he didn't want them to know anyway.

(… What's it like when I don't want you too)

Ifrit knew this feeling well, it was the same one he got from all the other humans he had junctioned with. 'Dark…Cold...'

(Hmm…)Squall thought about it for a minute, trying to figure out what was keeping his guard up…He didn't know how to open his mind… like that. (Cold?...Aren't you weak against cold?)

Ifrit snorted in annoyment, though it wasn't clear either at the question or the answer. Yes.' Ifrit was weak in cold atmospheres.

(Then...Are you alright?)

Tch, I'm fine.' Ifrit told him.

But since junctions went both ways, and Ifrit could probe around his head, he also had some leeway into Ifrit's. Though it wasn't nearly as much, it was something and it made him feel connected to Ifrit when he used it...(No your not.) Squall pointed out.

'I'm fine.' Ifrit repeated, strong as ever.

In some ways he wanted Ifrit to be able to be free in his head, but in some ways he didn't. But to condemn someone to cold and darkness, especially someone who was trying to help you, was it worth keeping the memories he held, the true feelings he had, the things inside of him to himself? (Hmm...) Who was he going to tell any way?

'Squall?' The darkness suddenly cleared and things warmed up for Ifrit…

(You seem to be the only person I feel like I want to talk to.) It was odd, maybe the junction that gave him the feeling as a deep connection, but still.

..'

(Ifrit? Can you… come here with out being summoned?)

'...Yes.'

A faded figure of Ifrit slowly came in to focus next to Squall's bed, drifting out of the sub-dimension he resided in and appearing in front of him... Squall watched with slight disbelief for a few moments, he had expected fire...lots of fire, but this with quiet and subtitle. 'Whoa...' He pulled the covers off of him and pulled his legs over the side of the bed, forcing himself to sit up.

Not entirely sure he wasn't dreaming, Squall slowly reach out his hand questioningly "Is this...real? Are you real?"...his hand move gradually over to an awaiting Ifrit. The GF sensed his dismay, so he lifted his arm from his side and took Squall's hand, his body was a pleasant warmth that seemed soothing, he was always warm... Squall seemed unable to pull his and back, until Ifrit shifted slightly and he finally forced himself to do so, he liked that warmth.

Ifrit sat down on the bed next to him, looking around the room with his own eyes, wondering...

Squall slowly placed his head on Ifrit's shoulder, already knew why he felt alright doing this, it was the feeling of condescending warmth that drew him in. Maybe it was the Junction that allowed him to know it was alright, Ifrit confidently placed his arm around Squall's shoulder.

"Feel better?" Ifrit asked, seemingly knowing why Squall couldn't sleep when he didn't. Right now, he didn't't want to go to sleep anymore, or maybe he did, this heat was so soothing...He felt almost child like doing this... Squall felt a kiss on the top of his head, really making him feel child like.

Squall looked up questioningly at the GF, who only gave a small grin as a reply.

That's when he realized that heat he felt wasn't all coming from Ifrit. Squall looked down, and found heat swelling in his lower body from rushing blood, he was becoming hard, very. ?'

A small blush came over his face as he looked back up at Ifrit, who slowly kissed him. Squall was nervous at first but it quickly wore off when he felt Ifrit's second arm wrap around him, he had to say that he saw this coming long before he asked Ifrit to come out, maybe both of them did... Squall slowly leaned back down to the bed feeling the warm body of Ifrit climb above him.

Damn hormones.

Squall's tongue slipped past the fangs, roaming around Ifrit's mouth curiously, it felt different then a human mouth. Though somethings were definitely better, like the fangs themselves, and the interaction between Ifrit's larger tongue and his own. He felt Ifrit's growing erection pressing in between his legs, it made him even harder... Ifrit pulled away from the kiss, lowering his head to Squall's neck with a deep breath. Both of his hands held Squall down by his chest, his claws digging skillfully into the fabric of his shirt stopping just short of his skin and ripping away the think clothing. Squall's breath was caught in his lungs, moaning lightly as Ifrit trailed his tongue down his collar bone, across his abdomen, leaving a trail of hot kisses down to his chest.

Ifrit held on to Squall's waist with one hand and wrapped the other arm around his back. Continuing to savor the salty flesh, filled with heat and with held warmth. Ifrit loved that warmth, that heat that made the skin taste different, that heat that felt good to hold, he wanted the body to be even hotter...

Ifrit's hand slid down Squall's stomach, his fingers tugging at the waist band of Squall's boxers and slipping inside, rubbing in between his legs, tracing along his cock. Squall noticed that Ifrit seemed to have some experience with this, it was interesting how a GF so strong could be so gentle. The long clawed finger softly and carefully rubbed the head of Squalls member, making the boy squirm a little.

Ifrit stopped there. "Sure about this?"

"…" Damn hormones... "I think so…"Squall nodded.

Ifrit gave a small agreeable response, pausing for a few seconds just to make sure he himself was ready before he pulled down Squall's boxers, slowly lowering them instead of ripping the fabric . He immediately took the revealed erection into his hands, softly rubbed the head with his thumb as he crawled downward until his body lay between Squall's legs. Ifrit smirked again, either out of some satisfaction about what he was about to do or something other wise. Squall didn't have time to thinking about it or ask the nature of the gesture, when he tried to ask the only thing that came out was an incoherent moan when Ifrit took him into his mouth and gently began to suck it.

Squall squirmed a little before he could force himself to relax, his hands trailed downward until they were imbedded in Ifrit's fiery red hair and grabbing on to the long horns that extended down his voice. Ifrit gently held on to Squall's waist with one hand again, the other softly roaming along the boy's body, careful of his claws.

Squall let go of Ifrit's horns and held the side of the bed tightly instead. "If...Ifrit..." He let out a soft groan, feeling Ifrit's tongue swirl around his erection. Squall squirmed more, lifting his head off of his pillow just enough to watch the GF with half lidded eyes. Ifrit paused to look up at Squall with his golden eyes, locking with Squall's...'Ifrit?...?' Then he downcast his eyes quickly and started to suck harder.

Squall clenched his fist, wanting to inquire the reason behind that last action but unable to seem to say anything understandable at the moment, every muscle in his body tensing and tightening. Ifrit felt Squall's cock twitch inside his mouth causing him to instinctively pull way , "Ifrit!" small tears formed in the edges of his eyes and his breathing became a lot heavy as he came, spilling cum over the white sheets of his bed.

Heart pounding and panting hard, Squall's head fell back down to the pillow and tilted to the side, catching the view of a strand of moonlight shining through closed blinds outside his window before his eyes shifted back to Ifrit above him. Shrouded in light darkness illuminated by the same moonlight.

A completely un-Squall like yelp escaped from the surprised boy when he felt rough hands pulling him close as Ifrit rolled over abruptly, leaving him laying on the broad expanses of Ifrit's chest and surrounded by the warmth of his arms wrapped around him. Squall laid with still evident but quickly fading surprise in the warmth, feeling Ifrit's dripping erection between his legs. Ifrit reached in-between them and scooped some of Squall's cum that had seeped on to his stomach, then spreading it on the head of his own member.

"Ready?"

Ready? He'd been ready since he turned 14...damn hormones. "Yes."

Ifrit didn't hesitate before making an action as he'd done before, using his hand to guide the awaiting erection until it pressed anticipating against Squall's entrance, then with one small shift of his hips it pushed inside of the boy. Squall winced at the pain that came with something that large but quickly got over it, noting that it was slick, dripping with pre-cum and traces of his own orgasm. It felt... good, better than he expected.

Ifrit held on to Squall's thighs with both hands, holding him steady as he shifted his waist down was and pulled out, thrusting in again farther, Squall sighed audibly, little feeling the GF's toned stomach pressing, rubbing against his newly growing erection.

Squall wrapped his arms around Ifrit, his mouth falling open a little and his eyes closing. He was finally able to let go at that moment, every feeling inside that made him shut himself out from others, that made him shut others out… everything. Even though this made him feel even more child like then he had been feeling before, way more then he would usually allow himself to becoming, he didn't care, as long as he could continue to fell this warmth.

Ifrit thrust in as far as his member could go, which was halfway since he was dealing with a human. He expected to Squall to react with some type of out cry, which was way he was hesitant about moving too fast as he would one of his normal mates, humans were still after all humans. But instead he felt Squall biting down on his chest, moaning loudly into him and for the second time came, this time much more quickly then before. His body relaxed and he fell limb on Ifrit's chest, spurting his seed on to Ifrit's bronze torso until it messily covered the two of their bodies and rolled down in small streams to the bed at Ifrit's sides.

Ifrit's arms slid downward to the boy's waste, holding him tighter "Squall..." He moaned at the sudden tightness that came when Squall's body constricted around him, doubling the warmth of the muscles into the heat that Ifrit craved so much from a mate. "Uhhaaa..." Ifrit buried his head into Squall's neck again, lining the soft skin with small licks and bites as he drove his cock in harder and faster, drawing another pant stricken moan from Squall and another shot of the boy's seed from the softened member.

The boy placed both of his hands on Ifrit's chest, his body arched up off Ifrit's, squirming and groaning. Ifrit pulled out, save for the head of the large cock still in side, pressing upward just past Squall's entrance.

"Uhaa...!" Ifrit pushed himself all the way in again, causing Squall to constrict around him, intensify the heat and tightness. He barely stopped himself from digging his claws in to Squall's back as he finally came, a rush of much thicker cum over flowed out of the warm body, streaming down Ifrit's reseeding erection and out on to the bed.

After another moment the cock had softened and returned to it's sheath, allowing Squall's body to fall on to Ifrit. Feeling the rise and fall of the muscular chest, hearing him pant to catch his breath. Ifrit lifted head from Squall's neck and kissed him on the top of his head causing more child like feelings to ensue after words again, having Ifrit holding him. "Ifrit..."

Squall drifted to sleep soon after.

But Ifrit didn't, only staying awake to think and figure some things... "Squall..." Ifrit's hand drifted up the boy's back, softy burying it self into his hair... 'Hormonal human...a young one too...hmm. I kind of like him.'

! - ! - !- !

! - ! - !

Do you guys know how long it takes to copy down all the script from a game? A long time, A very long time.


	4. Chapter 4: After Timber

Chapter 4: After Timber

After Squall and Ifrit's first night together, Squall and Zell were accepted as SeeD's and honorably noted Seifer wasn't. After the inauguration party that ensued acceptance, Squall was deemed captain of his group and hired for a mission by the 'Timber Owls' in Timber. Whose leader was man named Zone, and his partner Watts and a young lady named Rinoa. After a failed attempt at kidnapping the Galbadian President Vinzer Deling, who they found to be a fake. The real President announced the return of the sorceress and the strange disappearance of Seifer.

! - !- !

After escaping Timber, the 5 of them headed to Galbadia garden, where they received an order from both Balamb and Galbadia Garden to assassinate the sorceress. They added another member to there team to aid in the mission, A sniper named Irvine Kinneas. After words they took the train to Deling city where they met Rinoa's father General Caraway, and they were given the plans to defeat the sorceress. They were divided into two teams, who would trap the sorceress in a gate during the parade (the gateway team.) while the second team would take her down from a safe distance. Honorably mentioned, Irvine acquired the Brothers GF in the Tomb of the unknown king.

Being denied permission to help, Rinoa snuck out of her home and tried to seal the sorceress's power herself. But it didn't work out as she planed, she was captured and attacked by two monsters, given the power of reflect by the GF Carbuncle that was sealed inside of them by Edea, the sorceress. After being defeated and Carbuncle being drawn out, the GF was Junctioned to Zell who he and his team (the gateway team) had come a problem of there own.

Now Squall and Irvine were on the roof of the presidential palace, after a small motivational talk from Squall, Irvine was ready to take the shot. "Alright, here we go." The two of them watched as the gate closed around the sorceress's float, and Irvine lined up his scope, waiting until he got her just in the perfect alignment and pulled the trigger... And on target bullet tore through the air, but the Sorceress used a protect spell at the last second to block the shot, the sniper riffle just wasn't strong enough to do any damage against a protect spell from that range.

"…I'm sorry" Irvine lifted his head to his forehead and sighed in disappointment,

"It's ok, your aim was perfect, just leave the rest up to me." Squall reassured him, but his voice did have the ring unwillingness, but being the leader... "I'm goin' in for the sorceress, Irvine, Rinoa, just be ready to back me up." Squall drew his gunblade and Junctioned Ifrit, throwing back one last word to Irvine as he leaned over the edge. Quickly scouting out his plain of attack... "Take care of Rinoa."

'Are you ready?' Ifrit asked.

(Yes.) Squall gave a small nod to himself before jumped off of the roof, landing one level below on the balcony where the sorceress had just given her speech. With out fear he ran to the edge, kicked off the white marble railing and jumped over, landing just past the front gate.

Ifrit kept a surveying watch over the places he couldn't 'Squall, watch your left.' Squall quickly pivoted to the side, swinging his gunblade to the left and slashing a Galbadia solder across the chest hard enough to knock the man back. It gave him enough reprieve to relocated a blue car that he'd surveyed from the roof earlier, luckily it was still running. Forcing his way through the startled crowd he managed to make it to the car, quickly jumping in and pushing the gas.

People dashed out of the streets as Squall raced down the paved road, weaving through any obstacle in his path until he came upon the closed gate entrapping his target. He slammed down on the brakes and turned the steering wheel sharply. The car veered to the left sharply, enough to make the vehicle spin out of control and slid in to the gate. As close as he was going to get that way, Squall jumped out of the car, sliding in between the bars of the gate and ran to the front of the isolated float.

Squall climbed to the top, ready to take on the sorceress himself...but he found somebody in his way… Seifer was waiting, both hands resting on his Gunblade. "We'll this is how it turned out…" He said with an arrogant smirk as he lifted his sword.

It took a second, but Squall finally understood. "So..." Squall narrowed his eyes, speaking in a mocking tone. "You've become the sorceress' lap dog?"

Seifer looked at him with mild amusement. "I preferred to be called her knight, this has always been my dream."

Squall lifted his hand, holding the gunblade over his shoulder with the other. A trail of fire traveled along the ground, rushing out from under Seifer's in a small whirl of lames in the form of a Fira spell. Seifer stumbled back with his arm over his face, then regained his footing and charged at Squall.

He sung the gunblade forward, Squall steeped back but not far enough to evade completely, the tip of the blade slashed through the white t-shirt, cutting his stomach. Squall countered, bringing the gunblade above his head and bringing it down on Seifer. He strifed to the side, but the blade cut his shoulder.

Seifer didn't miss a beat, following up while Squall's defenses were down, brushing past his side, lifting his sword over his shoulder and slashing him across the back. Squall nearly fell but caught himself with a few steps forward, wincing from the pain of moving the damaged muscles across in his back. Squall turned around towards Seifer, thrusting hand out again.

Seifer's eyes widened, he wasn't expecting this... "!" Seifer's body began to rise in the air, surrounded by a blue haze, he had to stop himself from gasping he was suddenly surrounded by water. The bubble filled with water rose higher in to the air, bearing down on his body from all sides with a water pressure greater then the amount should have allowed, then dropped down to the ground, sending a greater rush of pressure over his body.

Seifer rose up on to his hands and knees, dripping wet "Your going to pay for that Lionhart." Seifer grunted, grabbing his sword and rising on to his feet with an uppercut, slashing Squall across the chest again. Squall clinched the blade, mainly from the pain, planting his foot back ready to counter. A golden light rose over his body from the ground, washing over him in a shining aura as he reached his limit break.

Squall shouted, ignoring the pain in his back as he attacked "You first!" Squall rushed at Seifer, who tried to anticipate the advancing Squall and counter, thrusting his sword outward... but missed. Squall held his weapon to his side low enough to drag it along the ground, then he swing his blade upward at Seifer, slashing him across the chest. He tried to defend him self by lifting his blade, but Squall stuck the sword on it's side and knocked it away, cutting him across his hand in the process.

Squall drew his blade back over his shoulder, striking Seifer powerfully in the shoulder with a rush of out pouring blood...(Ifrit?) Squall felt a strength pouring into him, was this why his attacks were doing so much power? Deciding to think about it later, Squall held his sword down to his side again, lifting his foot to kick Seifer in the chest and knock him backwards and then raise the sword upward with another uppercut. Seifer was knocked on to his back, his sword falling of the float. "I…Lost…?"

Squall looked down at him... "Your losing it Seifer."

'Squall.' Ifrit prompted.

Squall looked away from Seifer to the Sorceress, who'd been watching idle all this time, rose from her seat. Squall lifted his sword, unsure of what to expect...Edea continued watching for the moment, studying him and Ifrit to size them both up. "A Seed…planted in a run-down garden."

"Squall!"

Squall looked back with light surprise when he saw Rinoa and Irvine climbing up to the top of the float and to his side. "I can fight if I'm with you! That's why I'm here!" Rinoa told him, getting into a ready position on his left.

Irvine opened the chamber of the shot gun, quickly loading in shells two by two until it had reached it's capacity, then with a small flick of his wrist he snapped the chamber shut and pulling the slid "I have to redeem myself."

"…The accursed SeeD." The sorceress lifted her hand above the her head, causing Rinoa's body to become cold. She was suddenly coved in ice, which branched out into in a chrysalis, then shattered into ice shards. Rinoa dropped her knees from the sudden attack but rose with her arm outward, launching the saw like projectile from her arm. The projectile missed, just barely cutting grazing the sorceress's cheek. "Hmph."

She retaliated with a Fira aim at Squall, the burning whirl of fire rising around him knocked him to the ground, almost forcing him off the float.

(Ready?) Irvine asked.

'Let's do it!' Carbuncle took over, taking the damage of the Thunder spell that came down on him. Zell had let him junction Carbuncle before heading off to battle, figuring that he'd need him more readily.

Squall charged at the Sorceress, knowing her low defense to physical attacks would ensue. He lifted the gunblade about to strike, when the sorceress lifted her hand into the air again and the blue barrier of a protect spell blocked the attack, letting only the tip of the blade graze her chest.

Before another round of attacks could follow, a strange hole opened in the ground between them and the Sorceress, she seemed a little surprised at this... Carbuncle jumped out of the hole, flipping in mid air curled in to a ball, he unrivaled himself, the large jewel like form on his head glowing, sending rays of light shining down from the over the three...Carbuncle allowed himself to fall back down into the whole and the lights turned in to a reflect barrier.

A Thundaga spell came down on Squall from the Sorceress, but reflected back on her. Giving the perfect opening... (Now!) Squall told Ifrit, right before he was pulled in the sub-dimension... Ifrit came bursting out of the ground in their place with the same attack as before, but the meteor burned hotter this time then last. Squall was boosting his attack mentally by the junction.

The hot ball of fire and brimstone was hammered down on the sorceress, attacking her with great strength and mixture of being pelted by a heavy weight and scorched by intense flames. She stumbled backwards as Ifrit faded away, forced to use a water spell to wash away the flames engulfing her body. "!"

Her glare intensified..."Impudent SeeDs." she grunted, lifting her hand into the air again.

A mass of ice began to form above her palm, compacting on to itself until it formed a thick spear. 'Holy crap!' Carbuncle shouted in surprise. 'Get out of the way!' On Carbuncle's prompting Irvine dived out of the way as the Ice sickle launched forward, Rinoa stumbled back in surprise, leaving on Squall in it's path.

He never was very quick, quickness was usually Zell or Seiphie's suit... (Squall! No!)

All he heard was Ifrit's voice before it slammed through his chest...He gashed from the pain, trying to cry out but no sound came forth...the force of the long projectile sent him flying backwards off of the float, everything started to slow down, his whole perception of the world became slow'd down, almost as if he was watching from outside his body, he didn't even feel the blow after that transgression. He looked over and saw Rinoa staring back at him trying to reach out to him, Irvine looking on horror and uncertainty...He called out to the only person his mind could think to call.

(Ifrit!...Ifrit! Where are you? Ifrit!)

'Squ...Squall...' His voice sounded strained, roar out in pain...

(Ifrit! What's happening...)

'Squ..all...'

Everything just faded after that.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

When Squall finally awoken, he was back in a familiar place...but looking through the eyes of some one else.

This was...new. 'Where am I?…' He called out to the first person his mind went to. 'Ifrit?' He didn't get an answer, unlike last time he remembered being awake, Ifrit wasn't with him. Diablo's took his place, this time...

He looked around, he was in a small room with wooden furnishings laying in a small bed... A small girl in a blue dress ran into the room. "Uncle Laguna! There's someone here to see yoo." She said

"Huh? Me? What's this person look like?" The man deemed Laguna rolled over to the side of the bed and pushed himself up on to his feet, stretching lightly and speaking with a yawn.

"He was wearin' funny clothes. He's tawking to Raine right now." the girl told him.

"Hmm? Is he at the pub?"

"Yup. That's why I came over to get you, Uncle Laguna! Am I a good girl?" She asked innocently.

"No, you're not!" Laguna scolded. "It's dangerous to be out there by yourself.

What if a monster comes and attacks you?"

"It's only next door. It's ok."

"It's still dangerous! And since you're such a cute little girl, the monsters will especially be after you Ellone!" Laguna gave her a small poke to the head. "They'll catch you and then they'll suck your blood out! If anything like that should happen, Uncle Laguna's gonna cry…"

"I'll be ok. I'll just call yoo, Uncle Laguna! You'll come rescue me, right?" Ellone said, turning to running out of the room and head downstairs.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !


	5. Chapter 5: From the Prison to the Garden

Chapter 5: From the Prison to the Garden.

(...Where am I?)

Zell… Zell… Wake up!'

He slowly drifted back to conciseness, it was like being in a deep ocean and floating to the surface. (Carbuncle?)

Get up, your friends are calling you.'

(Where am I?)

Hell if I know, open your eyes.'

He did so, but they were greeted by rusted metal walls and dim florescent lights.

"Ahh, welcome back, Zell. The 'dream world' again?" Quistis asked.

Zell looked to his left after hearing the familiar voice. "Uh-huh." He rubbed his head and sat up with a light groan, a headache following. (Ow...this always made me wonder, when I have a headache can you feel it?)

Sometimes.'

(Can you feel it now?)

Not really.'

They were in a prison, now Zell remembered, and this small room he was in was a cell.

"How's Laguna doin'?" Seiphie asked, she was sitting to his right

Zell thought about it for a moment "Dunno... I didn't see him. It's not like I know everything about Ward, but... Well, you know Laguna and company went to that Centra place and got into a real fix, right? After that, Ward's been all alone. He's working in some sort of prison-like place. And he's bored outta his mind. All he wants is to be fightin' alongside Laguna."

"What is this were experiencing?" Quistis hoped that some one else might have some type of insight on it.

Zell sure as hell didn't. "How the hell should I know?"

Rinoa on the other hand, sitting next to Quistis, thought of something. "Um, didn't you say that Ward was working in some sort of prison?"

Zell didn't see the relevance, "Yeah so."

"And wasn't he from Galbadia?"

Zell nodded "Sure, he's a soldier there."

"Correct me if I'm wrong." Rinoa started. "But aren't you supposed to be Ward in that 'dream world'?"

"Just now I was."

"Does this room look familiar?"

It didn't make sense, why would this look _familiar_? (Of all the stupid questi)

'Come on Zell, think about it.' Carbuncle told him, he had gone to the same place a Zell since they were junctioned. (...Hey? Whoa? Wait a sec...) "I know this place!" Zell shouted, standing to his feet excitedly. "Everybody listen up! This is the prison that Ward works at! He's a janitor here! There are so many rooms just like this! It's got to be here!"

"There's a prison for political activists in Galbadia... This must be the place where Ward works. Right here, where we are! I'm sure of it!" Rinoa looked around, she was definitely sure, how could she not be considering who her father was.

! - ! - !

His eyes shot open and his body bolted up, panting heavily, clinching his chest.

With the first moisture of sweat forming about his forehead, Squall looked around frantically with his mind racing to put everything together (...Where am I?) He wasn't sure on that, but he did remember a few things (I...challenged Edea...) That he most definitely remembered, but since he remembered it so well he was sure he shouldn't have been alive. (My wound... ...?) Squall looked down, his hand padding around his chest for a gaping hole that wasn't there. (No wound...? How...? The Galbadian soldiers... ...We were surrounded.) Squall took another look around the small room, he was laying on a bed, not much else he could say about the room since there was nothing there.

(He was there... Seifer, leering down at me.) "Damn you, Seifer!" Squall grunted loudly, pounding his fist against the wall.

He finally figured something out, if there wasn't a wound... "No wound...oh no..." (...Irift! Irift!)

No answer.

It all came together now, the way Ifrit's voice sounded, the way he was talking, the way he didn't feel anything after the first second of blow. The only reason he even felt that was because of the junction they had. Ifrit must have summoned himself and took the blow for him...

Just before he had time to feel sad about it, his cell started to move so abruptly he nearly fell off the bed. Reason had been because his Cell was removable, It was being carried on a large lift rising up to the seventh floor.

At the same time Zell and the others were busy escaping.

Squall wasn't so lucky, he was in for a new set of problems... The door to his cell was kicked opened, and none other than Seifer walked in, giving him a once over arrogantly. "Squall your pitiful." He smirked, picking up a glaring Squall up by his shirt collar high enough to look him in the eye, and threw him in to the wall. Squall's back slammed against the wall with a small grunt, sliding down on to the bed mounted on the wall...Seifer shook his head, this really was pitiful "Take him away."

About 4 or so Moombas came in and grabbed him by his arms and his legs, dragging him with all their strength off of the bed and down to the ground. He could tell they were struggling to move him as they pulled his body out of the cell and into a hallway, from there it was down a small hallway and in to another room. Before he knew what was happening to him he was being lifted by a Galbadian solider and pressed against the wall, a rough and very uncomfortable surface. His hands and legs were strapped down in restraints, now he was hanging off of a crossed shape device, a lot of pressure being put on his hands. '...'

"I sure you can imagine what happens next." Seifer walked into the room, standing before him with a cocky expression on his face.

"…What do you want?" Squall asked with his head hung down low, his breaths audible.

"Tell me what SeeD is. Edea demands to know."

"SeeD... (...A code name for Balamb Garden's elite mercenary force...SeeD... Combat specialists...?) "...Don't you already know?" (He would know if he made it.)

"I'm not a SeeD. There must be some kind of secret you're given when you become a SeeD!" Seifer seemed determined to find out the answer, unusually determined.

"There's nothing." Squall lifted his head with the same glaring expression on his face. "Even if there were, you think I'd tell you?"

Seifer folded his arms and dropped his head with a sigh "You're on my 'tough-nut-to-crack' list. Didn't think you'd talk that easily."

"...Gees, I'm honored."

Seifer smirked again, and Squall immediately knew things would get worse for him "So here's a little somethin' for ya."... A volt of electricity ran through his body, it felt like everything inside of him was on fire, like it was being torn apart. He screamed in pain.

"Even if you don't talk, others will. The instructor, the little messenger girl, or that Chicken-wuss... He wouldn't last 3 seconds!" Sefer laughed.

(Th…they're) "There're…all here…?" Squall managed to force it out in between pants

"Oh, you bet. But since I like you so much, I thought you should go first. I was hoping you'd be there, Squall. So...how'd I look in my moment of triumph? My childhood dream, fulfilled. I've become the sorceress' knight." Seifer gloated, he had wanted this that bad?

Squall didn't have time to think on it before he passed out cold.

In the darkness of his mind he heard a voice.

'Squall? Squall?'

(I..Irift?)

'Squall?'

(What happened to you? I thought you were dead?)

'It takes more than that.' Squall felt the strong urge to hug him as tightly as he could, but Ifrit was too injured to be summon, Ifrit was barely able to keep him conscious through the junction, even that was failing. Especially since there was a strong force pushing them apart, it could be none other then a GF Seal... 'Squall...I can't keep this up...'

(Ifrit!)

'Don't worry about me...just be ok...Squall...'

After that everything went completely silent.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

After a daring and narrow escape from Galbadia prison, they split up, one team heading for the missile base and another for the Garden after learning of an emanate missile strike from the Galbadian army. Squall's team went to warn the Garden while Zell's did their best to avert the on coming attack

The best thing available to Zell's team was to increases the error ratio of the missiles, but they wouldn't take doing only that. So after setting the self destruct sequence and attempting to evacuate before the Galbadian base detonated, the apparently not dead Biggs and Wedge unleashed another Galbadia weapon to block their escape. A particularly tough one too, by the time they finished fighting it the self destruct timer had ran out and the base ended up blowing up with them still inside.

Meanwhile Squall and his team were sent on a mission by Cid to find the garden's shelter that they hoped would still be there. After a hard trip into the bowels of the Garden they activated an unknown switch which lowered the garden's ring and gave it the ability to fly. The good news was that they avoided the missile attack, the bad news was they were drifting aimlessly with no way to control the Garden.

It turned out to be a good thing, they ended up drifted until they crashed in to Fisherman's horizon, a town that was built in the middle of the sea, right next to an abridging railroad track.

The town helped repair the garden and modified the controls, being the people who constructed it in the first place. But while the repairs were being made Galbadia attacked, bring their latest weapon with them. But apparently their latest weapon had taken a beating previously, leaving it damaged and easy to defeat, after which their lost friends seemingly lost at the missile Base emerged safely.

At that point Lv 17 SeeD Nida was appointed to the pilot position to fly the garden, and Squall was forcibly deemed leader by Cid who saw something in him that Squall didn't.

! - ! - !

After a _very_ long day Squall finally got a chance to return to his dorm for a well need rest.

'No way, I don't like it, I never asked to be come the leader of the Garden.' Squall growled angrily in his mind.

'But think about it, you now have command of the garden, it's an asset not a curse.' Ifrit tried to help him make the best of it, but Squall just wouldn't see it that way. Despite of Squall's disfavor of it he was proud.

(It's to much responsibility, I didn't asked for that.) Squall closed the door behind him, ignoring his evident hunger to head strait for the bed room.

'You'd rather be blindly following orders?'

It was simpler than giving them.

(I'll just have to do as I was told... Command the Garden and defeat the sorceress.)

'…'

(How does Headmaster Cid expect me to take care of everyone? It'd be best to go fight the sorceress soon, and end this nonsense...?)

'But isn't she the headmaster's wife?'

(He wants us to kill his wife... What does it feel like to give an order like that?) Squall sighed...(It's like giving the order to kill you, I couldn't do that."

! - ! - !

He stayed there for about 20 minutes.

(...I'm bored...) Squall starred strait up at the ceiling, his head resting on Ifrit's chest. (What's everybody doing?)

He climbed from his bed, Ifrit objecting to staying behind as he slowly made his way out of his dorm room.

He found Quistis, Zell and Rinoa were talking when he reached the hallway, but as soon as they spotted him coming towards them, Quistis and Zell started to walk off. Upon closer look , Rinoa was wearing the white dress she wore to the SeeD inauguration party... Ok? What was going on...?

"What's up?" She asked, her hands cuffed behind her back and leaning anxiously towards him. "Tired"

"You look so down? Come on, Squall, how old are you? You're still a teenager. Why don't you act like one for a change?"

Squall shook his head, "Just tired." he sighed... Ifrit hadn't junction himself to him when he left, something was going on, 'He must be in on it.'

"Ok, come on, let's go to the concert."

"What?" Concert? What concert? Hm...concert might be nice "…why not."

"YES! Okay, let's go!" She said excitedly, grabbing him by the hand and pulling him forward.

! - ! - !

They ended up at FH in front of the stairs that lead down to the sun panel. A stage was set up there, after small talk with Irvine he and Rinoa headed down to the 'special area' Irvine had indicated to him.

(This looks like the place he was talking about.)

Rinoa looked at the magazine "Ohh, a naughty magazine."

Squall rolled his eyes. (I thought he was kidding.) "You wanted to talk about something, right?" He sat down at the edge of the stage looking down at the sun panels, the way the stars shined off them made the everything seem surreal. He'd have to come back here a night some time, it was to bad Ifrit couldn't see this, he'd like something like this. "What is it?"

"Umm...well it's about your promotion." Rinoa sat down next to him, her eyes gazing upward. "Things are gonna get real tough for you, eh?"

(I don't want to think about it.) He didn't, not at all.

"Squall, I'm sure there'll be a lot of difficult things that you'll have to deal with from now on. We were talking about that, and saying how you'll probably try to handle everything on your own." Rinoa reminisced, she knew him too well.

(I probably will.)

"They know you too well. I do, too, although I haven't been around you that long. Y'know, when you start thinking, you tend to frown like this." Rinoa lifted her hand to her forehead, slowly looking over towards Squall who looked at her, the same motion. He pushed, she fell back laughing.

"I'm out of here." Squall got up, about to turn and leave before Rinoa stopped him.

"Oh come on! I'm sorry! But really, we were saying that...well... You can't handle everything on your own." Rinoa stood up as she spoke, creeping up behind him and pushed him off the edge on to the sun panels.

Squall landed on his feet, turning back to glare at her in annoyment. "!"

"That's it! Just let out anything! Anything..." Rinoa's voice trailed off for a moment, jumping down on to the reflective panes with him "We want you to talk to us a little more. That's all. Y'know, if there's anything you want to tell us, or anything we can do, don't hesitate to let us know. I know it's not easy but I wish you would trust us and rely on us a little more."

(Am I that untrusting...?) Was he? He didn't really think he was...(Maybe I'm this way because I'm scared.) Squall sighed, dropping his shoulders and staring up at the sky. He was untrusting, the only person he really trusted was...Did he really trust anyone? (Nothing lasts in this world. It feels great to have friends who believe in you, and adults you can rely on.)

Yeah, he did have some one who really and truly trusted...Ifrit, Ifrit knew more about him then anyone, even himself...but that was the problem, having someone that close to you. (That's why it's so dangerous, especially if you become used to it. Someday you're bound to loose everything. Everybody around you will be gone.)

Squall dropped down on one knee, letting himself stare down at the shining stars on the sun panels. He didn't want to lose everything, he didn't want Ifrit to stop being their for him, all for himself. He didn't want his friends to just die and disappear! He didn't want to go through that! What would he do after that? (Then what are you left with? Nothing. Nobody... It's so miserable, and it's inevitable. It's so hard to recover from something like that, I never ever want to deal with that again. I can't even if it means being alone...) God he hated being alone, but being alone after losing everything...

"I don't get it. What's going on?" Rinoa looked at him questioningly.

(Huh? What? Oh me?) Squall had completely forgotten he was talking to her. "Sorry about that. So...are we finished Here?"

"What? No, I didn't mean you. I was talking about the music. I love this piece but it's been terrible for the last few minutes. Geez, what's wrong with them?" She wasn't look at him, she was looking past him.

"Oh. Well...I'll see you later, alright?" Squall turned to walk away, about to climb up out of the panel when Rinoa stopped him again.

"Wait! You're not gettin' off that easy. You still owe me an Answer."

(Answer for what...? Oh...) "Fine. I'll ask for help when I really need it. I'll try to trust everybody more often. Ok?"

Rinoa frowned and looked at him angrily, she couldn't believe the way he was acting. "What is your problem? Why do you have to be like that? Are you mad or something? Tell me you are, because this really can't be you!"

"I'm sorry." Squall apologized.

Rinoa shook her head, only growing more angry at his response. "You're not sorry! You just wanna get the hell out of here, that's all! Geez! Why does it have to be like this? Why?" She turned from him and stormed away from him, anger radiating from every movement she made.

(...Oh well. This won't change anything... I think I was honest. I prefer to be alone, right?) Did he really? (...Yeah...) Well he could, he'd been alone all this time right?

He heard Ifrit's voice and nearly jumped, apparently Ifrit had been junctioned and he didn't know it. 'Do you really believe that?'

Squall looked down at his reflection in the panels and saw Ifrit's instead, something Ifrit was able to do when he wanted Squall to actually see him with out being there. He usually only did it when things were serious. (You know what I mean)

'I see, you feel it's just easier not to risk feeling any pain than to get close to others.'

(…)

'You can't live this way.'

(I can, and I'm better off doing so.)

He could mentally see Ifrit disagreeing with him. 'There is no way a human can be better off alone, what is wrong with you, you don't want any responsibility, you wont let yourself be around people-'

(Me! How can you criticize me! You blindly follow orders, the only thing you do is fight and kill!)

'…' Ifrit only looked at him, then looked away.

(…) Squall only folded his arms, maybe he shouldn't have said that...

'Well I know why I do what I'm doing.' Ifrit scowled. 'Impudent fool, I have a reason to fight and that is to protect you...'

Squall's mind wondered back to the fight with Edea, how Ifrit nearly died to save him. How he looked afterwords, it was painful to see him that weak an near death, it left a visible scar and he was sure Ifrit still wasn't 100. But still he fought along side Squall...who was feeling particularly like an idiot right now.

'That is why I fight, That is why I 'kill'. What about you?' Ifrit asked, noticing Squall wasn't looking him in the eye anymore. 'The only reason I follow you is because I trust your judgment, I believe in you.' Ifrit paused again, lifting his head so that Squall couldn't see his face. 'What is your reason?'

(…) Squall didn't know what to say to this, no one ever had the will to stay with him and deal with him even when pushed them away. Well, there was one more person…

Ifrit still wanted an answer. 'So, what is it?'

(I don't know! What am I supposed to say to that!) Squall shouted mentally.

Ifrit appeared in front of him, standing face to face with his arms folded and his eyes looking down at Squall who had no choice but to look up at him. "Something." Ifrit growled. "If you don't have a reason to fight, If you don't have a reason to keep going, how do I know you won't just give up and walk away." Give up and walk away? Walk away from what? Walk away from his duties at Balamb Garden, or walk away from them?

"How do I..." Squall looked away. "How do I know you won't leave me, how do I know you won't just decide to go someplace else one day?"

Ifrit didn't hesitate to answer, he rarely had to think about his responses. "Because I want to...Because I will protect you, I wouldn't leave you for anything." He didn't have anything else, it could even be said that he needed Squall as much as he needed him.

"..."

"I wont...so tell me, why do you fight?"

Squall didn't answer right away, he just looked at Ifrit "I don't have a reason...I guess...I fight to keep what I have now. I guess I'm fighting... for you."

Chapter 5: part 2

Squall walked back to the garden alone. He didn't know if Ifrit had rejunctioned or not. Right now he didn't care. He was still angry at him, he never asked to get close to Ifrit, just like he never asked to get close to Rinoa. Now the thing that he least wanted was happening to him, and reflexively he pushed it away.

Damn reflexes.

The sunrise reflected in the sea around FH's harbors, coloring it the same blend of golden, orange and red as the sky. This town was peaceful, no fighting, no conflicts, Squall actually liked this place. (Maybe I could live here?) He thought about it for a minute, but on second thought (Nah, it'd be too boring... but it would be peaceful.) They had taken Martine in, he seemed to be better, why not him? He could live here...

But as he looked up to the Garden still ported in the edge of town, he realized that he had responsibilities now, there was no way could even consider it. It was making him mad again, this is why he didn't think about these things.

After a short crossing of the extended bridge, Squall went threw the side door of the Garden and headed strait to his dormitory on the first floor. With out another word he face flat into his bed and headed off to sleep.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Or so he thought he would, he never actually fell completely asleep, something in the back of his mind was holding him back... He knew exactly what it was. (Irift?…) He heard no answer, (Irift?…) Maybe he wasn't there, maybe he was asleep?

He honestly didn't want to wake him up if he was. 'Yes?' the sudden unexpected voice made him jump a little. Ifrit summoned himself, sitting on the edge of Squall's bed.

Squall sighed, he really couldn't take the guilt "Ifrit, I'm sorry, I-"

Ifrit cut his words off, giving him a soft kiss telling him there was no reason to be sorry. He wasn't mad "I apologize, I said-"

Squall pressed his lips to Ifrit's, cutting him off in tern. This time no one tried to speak or apologize, Squall only pulled Ifrit closer, still feeling retentive toward Ifrit

"Really, I am sorry." Squall whispered, face to face with the flame GF, staring up at him with eyes that just couldn't seem to look at Ifrit's directly.

"Humans." Ifrit shook his head "There's no reason to be apologize to me, but if you really want to, don't say it, show me." Ifrit wasn't the talking type, he was a large advocate of taking action.

Ifrit climbed on top of him, his hands planted on Squall's shoulders, pushing him down on to the bed as he closed the small gap between them with another kiss. Squall's arm wrapped around and held the large body as best he could, trying to pull him as close as possible and the small, comforting warmth that always surrounded him. He could feel Ifrit's long erection growing, pressing between Squall's legs, rubbing against the boy's cock. It had to be twice as long as Squall's and almost two times as big. And Ifrit never was the type to waste time on 4 play, maybe it was the inhuman lido.

Ifrit's hand shifted down to Squall's side with a familiar gleam in his eyes, Squall was expectant when Ifrit rolling over and took Squall with him so that was on top. Squall opened his eyes again, looking in to the deep yellow ones, holding on to the warm body below him in a child like manner. Ifrit pulled Squall down so that he was on his knees between his drawn up legs, pulling Squall closer with a light tug on his waist so that Squall's cock was pressing against his entrance.

Squall got the clear impression that to some degree, Ifrit wanted it to hurt.

"Are you sure about this?" Squall asked as he held on to Ifrit's side, pausing to make sure.

"Yes." Ifrit nodded.

With out farther hesitation Squall pushed himself inside with a light shift of his weight, bringing most of his body weight to lean on the GF. A low growl emitted from Ifrit, but it wasn't enough for him, he wanted more... "Harder." Ifrit reached to Squall's waist again and forced him in deeper and harder.

Squall complied going faster and as hard as he could mange, it was rough but it felt so much better, Squall was already starting to breath harder from trying to contain himself. Lifting one hand from where they were set on Ifrit's torso, he reached up and wrapped his fingers around the GF's cock. Stroking up and down the large erection, timing it with his thrust.

Squall burred him self in to Ifrit and came harder than he ever had, and notably quicker. Sure this was his first time actually being on top with Ifrit, but he didn't expect himself to lose stamina this quickly. In-between tensed straining he heard a growl from Ifrit and a few seconds later, spurts of liquid hit chin and drenched his hand, apparently the same applied for Ifrit who was too embarrassed to admit how much Squall being...

Squall pulled out, resting on Ifrit's torso. But the sound of Ifrit's panting and the large hand running through his hair kept him going, spilling more cum on to the sheets. After a few minutes, Ifrit reached down and wiped the cum from his chin.

Squall buried his face into Ifrit's chest, letting out a small groan. "You know we can't stay like this…" Squall didn't want to move, he wanted to stay like that for the rest of the night but he knew he couldn't.

Squall slowly lifted off of Ifrit, landing on his back beside of him in the small bed, Ifrit disappeared soon after, returning to where ever he went. Squall would have to ask him about that some day.

! - ! - !

"Why?"

"I always wanted to know." Zell laid in his bed, just getting back from the concert that had happened about 6 hours ago. After everyone left he and Carbuncle stayed after and played around with some of the instrument, Zell had known how to play most of them, Carbuncle was just messing around with them. It was really cute to see him trying to hold a drumstick with his paws, and his mouth. After a while Carbuncle finally gave up and started practicing with his shields. Zell didn't bother to take off his clothes, he just laid there with his eyes closed, talking to Carbuncle. "So, tell me."

The most that could be said about both of them was they were honestly alike, that's probably why they were so compatible. Both were a little loud, very brash, quick to anger. "Well it's like being inside your head." Carbuncle said, laying curled into a ball on Zell's stomach.

"Wow, Can you see what I think or something like that?"

"Some times…"

"What do you mean sometimes?" Zell grumbled.

"Well like if you don't want me to I can't, It'd be like looking into a big black wall."

Zell wondered what that must have looked like. "Hmm…wow."

Carbuncle nodded. "Yup."

Zell yawned and opened his eyes with a light upward stretch of his arms, watching the stray rays of sunrise through the windows tenting the be as well as both of them in a golden light. "How old are you?"

Carbuncle's eyes turned to the ceiling with thought. "Old…" A light pause and held sounds "-er"

Older? Older then what? Surely Carbuncle couldn't have meant him "You look like a baby, what are you like 3?"

Carbuncle narrowed his eyes in disbelief, then bolted on to his feet and jumped on to Zell's chest, staring at him eye to eye "3! Are you serious?"

"Well…" Zell looked away for a moment, thinking... "5?"

"5!" Carbuncle growled loudly. "I'm at lest a hundred times that!"

Zell sat up, making Carbuncle slid embarrassingly into his lap despite his best effort to grab on to his shirt. "Your 500?"

Carbuncle tilted his head upward proudly "548." he said in a matter of factly tone.

Interesting, really interesting. Zell looked down at him wonderingly, a child like curiosity gleaming in his expression "You have to know a lot of stuff, what happened back then?"

"Hmm… Well every story's a long one, even the short version is kind of long."

It only made Zell want to know more. "Well you don't have to tell it all right now, spread it out."

! - ! -!


	6. Chapter 5: part 2

Chapter 5: part 2

Squall walked back to the garden alone. He didn't know if Ifrit had rejunctioned or not. Right now he didn't care. He was still angry at him, he never asked to get close to Ifrit, just like he never asked to get close to Rinoa. Now the thing that he least wanted was happening to him, and reflexively he pushed it away.

Damn reflexes.

The sunrise reflected in the sea around FH's harbors, coloring it the same blend of golden, orange and red as the sky. This town was peaceful, no fighting, no conflicts, Squall actually liked this place. (Maybe I could live here?) He thought about it for a minute, but on second thought (Nah, it'd be too boring... but it would be peaceful.) They had taken Martine in, he seemed to be better, why not him? He could live here...

But as he looked up to the Garden still ported in the edge of town, he realized that he had responsibilities now, there was no way could even consider it. It was making him mad again, this is why he didn't think about these things.

After a short crossing of the extended bridge, Squall went threw the side door of the Garden and headed strait to his dormitory on the first floor. With out another word he face flat into his bed and headed off to sleep.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Or so he thought he would, he never actually fell completely asleep, something in the back of his mind was holding him back... He knew exactly what it was. (Irift?…) He heard no answer, (Irift?…) Maybe he wasn't there, maybe he was asleep?

He honestly didn't want to wake him up if he was. 'Yes?' the sudden unexpected voice made him jump a little. Ifrit summoned himself, sitting on the edge of Squall's bed.

Squall sighed, he really couldn't take the guilt "Ifrit, I'm sorry, I-"

Ifrit cut his words off, giving him a soft kiss telling him there was no reason to be sorry. He wasn't mad "I apologize, I said-"

Squall pressed his lips to Ifrit's, cutting him off in tern. This time no one tried to speak or apologize, Squall only pulled Ifrit closer, still feeling retentive toward Ifrit

"Really, I am sorry." Squall whispered, face to face with the flame GF, staring up at him with eyes that just couldn't seem to look at Ifrit's directly.

"Humans." Ifrit shook his head "There's no reason to be apologize to me, but if you really want to, don't say it, show me." Ifrit wasn't the talking type, he was a large advocate of taking action.

Ifrit climbed on top of him, his hands planted on Squall's shoulders, pushing him down on to the bed as he closed the small gap between them with another kiss. Squall's arm wrapped around and held the large body as best he could, trying to pull him as close as possible and the small, comforting warmth that always surrounded him. He could feel Ifrit's long erection growing, pressing between Squall's legs, rubbing against the boy's cock. It had to be twice as long as Squall's and almost two times as big. And Ifrit never was the type to waste time on 4 play, maybe it was the inhuman lido.

Ifrit's hand shifted down to Squall's side with a familiar gleam in his eyes, Squall was expectant when Ifrit rolling over and took Squall with him so that was on top. Squall opened his eyes again, looking in to the deep yellow ones, holding on to the warm body below him in a child like manner. Ifrit pulled Squall down so that he was on his knees between his drawn up legs, pulling Squall closer with a light tug on his waist so that Squall's cock was pressing against his entrance.

Squall got the clear impression that to some degree, Ifrit wanted it to hurt.

"Are you sure about this?" Squall asked as he held on to Ifrit's side, pausing to make sure.

"Yes." Ifrit nodded.

With out farther hesitation Squall pushed himself inside with a light shift of his weight, bringing most of his body weight to lean on the GF. A low growl emitted from Ifrit, but it wasn't enough for him, he wanted more... "Harder." Ifrit reached to Squall's waist again and forced him in deeper and harder.

Squall complied going faster and as hard as he could mange, it was rough but it felt so much better, Squall was already starting to breath harder from trying to contain himself. Lifting one hand from where they were set on Ifrit's torso, he reached up and wrapped his fingers around the GF's cock. Stroking up and down the large erection, timing it with his thrust.

Squall burred him self in to Ifrit and came harder than he ever had, and notably quicker. Sure this was his first time actually being on top with Ifrit, but he didn't expect himself to lose stamina this quickly. In-between tensed straining he heard a growl from Ifrit and a few seconds later, spurts of liquid hit chin and drenched his hand, apparently the same applied for Ifrit who was too embarrassed to admit how much Squall being...

Squall pulled out, resting on Ifrit's torso. But the sound of Ifrit's panting and the large hand running through his hair kept him going, spilling more cum on to the sheets. After a few minutes, Ifrit reached down and wiped the cum from his chin.

Squall buried his face into Ifrit's chest, letting out a small groan. "You know we can't stay like this…" Squall didn't want to move, he wanted to stay like that for the rest of the night but he knew he couldn't.

Squall slowly lifted off of Ifrit, landing on his back beside of him in the small bed, Ifrit disappeared soon after, returning to where ever he went. Squall would have to ask him about that some day.

! - ! - !

"Why?"

"I always wanted to know." Zell laid in his bed, just getting back from the concert that had happened about 6 hours ago. After everyone left he and Carbuncle stayed after and played around with some of the instrument, Zell had known how to play most of them, Carbuncle was just messing around with them. It was really cute to see him trying to hold a drumstick with his paws, and his mouth. After a while Carbuncle finally gave up and started practicing with his shields. Zell didn't bother to take off his clothes, he just laid there with his eyes closed, talking to Carbuncle. "So, tell me."

The most that could be said about both of them was they were honestly alike, that's probably why they were so compatible. Both were a little loud, very brash, quick to anger. "Well it's like being inside your head." Carbuncle said, laying curled into a ball on Zell's stomach.

"Wow, Can you see what I think or something like that?"

"Some times…"

"What do you mean sometimes?" Zell grumbled.

"Well like if you don't want me to I can't, It'd be like looking into a big black wall."

Zell wondered what that must have looked like. "Hmm…wow."

Carbuncle nodded. "Yup."

Zell yawned and opened his eyes with a light upward stretch of his arms, watching the stray rays of sunrise through the windows tenting the be as well as both of them in a golden light. "How old are you?"

Carbuncle's eyes turned to the ceiling with thought. "Old…" A light pause and held sounds "-er"

Older? Older then what? Surely Carbuncle couldn't have meant him "You look like a baby, what are you like 3?"

Carbuncle narrowed his eyes in disbelief, then bolted on to his feet and jumped on to Zell's chest, staring at him eye to eye "3! Are you serious?"

"Well…" Zell looked away for a moment, thinking... "5?"

"5!" Carbuncle growled loudly. "I'm at lest a hundred times that!"

Zell sat up, making Carbuncle slid embarrassingly into his lap despite his best effort to grab on to his shirt. "Your 500?"

Carbuncle tilted his head upward proudly "548." he said in a matter of factly tone.

Interesting, really interesting. Zell looked down at him wonderingly, a child like curiosity gleaming in his expression "You have to know a lot of stuff, what happened back then?"

"Hmm… Well every story's a long one, even the short version is kind of long."

It only made Zell want to know more. "Well you don't have to tell it all right now, spread it out."

! - ! -!


	7. Chapter 6Balamb, rated next

Chapter 6-Balamb, rated next

Under Squall's order, Nida piloted the Garden back to Balamb after hearing some suspicious rumors. Which turned out to be true, Zell's hometown was under marshal law by the sorceress and the Galbadia government. The Galbadian army was looking for Ellone and wouldn't allow any one in or out until she was found, the guard in turn told them to find the 'commander'. They gained entry by telling the guard that they had information on her, a simple lie that worked. The first place, being one of the closest they headed was to Zell's home after a small talk with Ma Dincht, they were up to speed on the situation.

Squall, Zell and Irvine searched high and low for the 'Commander' but after their search didn't yield any results, they ended up being lead by a search dog.

They were taken to the train station where the 'Commander' was sleeping, who turned out to be Raijin who they followed to the Balamb hotel.

The two guards at the door warned them as they approached.

"Hey, you! Stand back, the commander's just about to"

They didn't even finish before Raijin came flying head out of the hotel doors and slamming on to the stone road. But he quick picked himself up, in an attempt to save face, but he couldn't help rubbing his behind. "YEOW! Ouuuch... F-Fujin... C-Control you temper, ya know? I was patrollin', just like ya told me. I even woke up that search dog, sleepin' on the job, ya know?" Raijin turned to the two guards pleadingly "You guys help me out here! We've gotta clam Fujin down, ya know?"

Somewhat annoyed that they weren't even being noticed, Zell shouted loudly "RAIJIN!" Getting in a fighting stance.

Raijin flinched, turned around abruptly. "Wooooow! What are you guys doin' here?"

"We're here to liberate Balamb, ya know?" Zell paused, realizing what he had just said. "...I mean...uhh... We're here to liberate Balamb!" Zell, feeling mildly embarrassed about his mistake, played it off nicely.

"Seifer told us to give you a whoppin' if we saw you, ya know!" Raijin lifted his staff, waving the two guards over towards him "You soldiers help me out, too!" The two men lined up along side of him, ready to go.

Squall readied his gun blade, Zell tightened his gloves, and Irvine loaded and aimed his shotgun. "You'll pay for this, Raijin!" Zell growled. (Ready Carbuncle?)

'Always.' Carbuncle said with his usual enthusiasm, some how when Zell was mad or really excited, he gain some boost of Energy. Must be the junction.

Zell's first move was a defensive one, summoning Carbuncle. The small, green GF opened a hole in the ground, jumping through while curled into a ball and rising high into the air. When he reached a curtain height he instinctively uncurled, the red jewel on his forehead shining with a crimson light. It radiated a light over the three, casting a reflect spell.

Irvine was ready, following up with a Triple spell on himself. Squall took a more direct approach and charged at the nearest Galbadian soldier with his sword hung low to his side, when he got in range he lifted the blade slashed the man across stomach. The soldier stumbled back, wildly swinging his sword at Squall. Squall jumped back, avoiding the blow that created sparks when the blade struck the ground. But the blue clad soldier wouldn't give up that easily, he dashed after him, pulling his sword across his shoulder and slashing Squall across the chest.

The second Galbadian soldier planted the tip of his sword on the ground, holding it with one hand and lifting the other, he cast a Fiargea spell. A line of fire trailed across the stony path, erupting under Irvine in a spinning inferno that nearly covered his whole body.

Zell rushed the first ,already weakened by Squall's attack, Galbadian soldier. Knocking him back with a thrust of his shoulder, while the man was stumbling, Zell drove two tabbing punches right in his stomach then a strong right hook to the side of his head.

"Got you now!" Raijin came after Zell, spinning the large staff above his head with both hands. In a fluid motion he pulled it down to his side, still spinning, and trust the base of the staff upward in to his chin. Zell was knocked off his feet, soaring threw and forced into a full flip in mind air before landing hard on the ground. Raijin was strong, but he had always been strong.

(Are you alright Zell?)

"Fine!" Zell shouted out loud.

Back in the garden Raijin was one of the strongest, if not the strongest fighter, he may have made a good SeeD if had bothered to take the test but unfortunately he didn't consider himself a test person since most of the SeeD exam was written response. Nida was always helping him in classes, and tutoring him out of them, he would have passed with all the help Nida had given him. And it was mutual, Raijin and his physical training was the helped Nida make it past the field exam.

The second Galbadian Soldier took the opportunity to attack the downed Zell. Seeing him coming Zell crawled backwards, still on the ground. He almost made it out the way, but the soldier managed to thrust the sword down and hit him across the arm side.

The other Galbadian soldier ran for the still recovering Zell, but he was blown off his feet by two well placed rounds from Irvine, knocking him on his back painfully. Using his triple effect Zell cast Blizzard. The first bolder of ice fell on top of the fallen soldier, taking him out. The second striking Raijin atop his head hard enough to cause a visible wince and the third hitting the last soldier. Squall followed up, striking the last Galbadian soldier with a swift slice from the gunblade and knocking him out.

The situation wasn't looking too good. "Damn..." Raijin cast aura on himself, noticing that Zell was already glowing with the energy of a limit break. This suddenly became a one on one fight.

"Zell, catch!" Irvine tossed Zell a Hi-potion, he hastily drank the bitter liquid, tossing the empty bottle aside with the ching of hard glass bouncing against a harder surface.

Raijin attacked him first, unleashing his Raijin special limit. He held the staff with both hands out as far as his arms could extend, striking Zell with an unusually quick blow from the left end, then the right. Then with a small spin he brought the staff upward for an upper cut, striking Zell in the chin with equal or even greater strength then last time, but quickly bring it back down on Zell's head before the boy's body could be thrown backwards from the force of the previous strike. Last he brought the staff around his back and trust the end of it in Zell's stomach before he could hit the ground. Launching Zell outward and sending him flying backwards into the side of the hotel wall, visibly leaving an imprint behind.

Zell slid down out of the imprint in the brick wall, landing on his hands and knees, expelling blood from his mouth with a painful cough. (Are you ok, it must have hurt.) Carbuncle said in a worried tone.

Zell didn't want Carbuncle worrying about him, in fact he found it embarrassing that Carbuncle had to see him end up in this condition when fighting one person. He snorted with narrowed eyes, wiping the blood away from his cheek. 'Not that much.' Zell lied, it actually hurt a lot, but In costmary Zell style, he was driven in to anger and back in to his limit break.

"RAIJIN!" He ran at Raijin with a speed previously unachieved, delivering two punches to his chest hard enough to knock the wind out of him. Pummeling the side of his head with more blows. When Raijin stumbled to the left from the force of his blow, Zell delivered a fierce roundhouse kick with his left foot. Then jumping up slightly and thrusting a kick directly into his face. While he was still stumbling backwards disorientedly , Zell ran at him, going past his side and under Raijin's right arm and grabbed him by the waist. He picked him up, lifting Raijin above his head and tossing him in the air. Raijin landed painfully on his stomach, scrambling to his feet. But Zell was ready, coming at him again, with practiced agility Zell ran up Raijin's torso, giving a swift kick in the chin before he kicked off of Raijin into a back flip. He landed a considerable distance from where Raijin was barley standing.

The aqua aurora of a higher level Limit break few ever achieved engulfed his body like a raging fire, erupting in a blast of blue energy. Zell's shoulders ignited with intense red flames from his Burning Rave finisher. With a loud outcry Zell lifted his fist in the air, and slammed it in to the ground, transferring that force that ignited the flames with the punch. A rush of energy tore through the ground like a shark through water, exploding under Raijin with a white flash of a localized explosion, sending his body flying in to air and crashing to the ground hard enough to knock some debris into the air.

Carbuncle gasped in amazement 'Wow Zell! Your REALLY strong!'

(Damn right!)

Raijin tried to lift himself up, but fell back down to the ground. "Ughhh, you got me, ya know………"

Felling rightly confident in his ability's he shouted "OHHHH YEAHHHH! The commander's gonna get a whoopin' too!" and dashed in to the hotel.

Squall tried to stop him "Damnit Zell, don't just"but he was already gone (I'm just talking to myself.) Squall rubbed his head, this was becoming stressful, so with no choice he just ran after him, Irvine following.

! - ! - !

Inside Fujin was waiting on them, she couldn't help but be after all of that commotion.

"So I guess you're the commander! Pack your bags and get the hell outta Balamb!" Zell shouted, partly still trying to impress Carbuncle and running on an adrenalin high.

"...RAIJIN, DEFEATED...?"

"That's right, BABY!" Zell yelled. "Now, where's Seifer and the sorceress? You're all goin' DOWN!"

Squall placed his hand on Zell's shoulder and pulled him back, he was a little _too_ excited "Zell, clam down." With Zell mildly under control, Squall turned to Fujin. "Fujin, looks like you're on your own. Are you still willing to fight?"

"RAGE!"

A deep voice came form the doorway, "Oh man, no way." Irvine lifted his hat lightly and looked back at Raijin standing in the door way.

"BWA HA HA HA! She's not alone!" Raijin called out triumphantly as he walked to Fujin's side. "Major come-back, ya know! Actually, I feel a lot betta, ya know! I feel invincible, ya know!"

Zell was almost stunned, he did all of that and Raijin was only down for 2 minutes? "How the...? I thought we defeated you!"

Raijin may have recovered but Zell hadn't, he was going in to battle still weak from his a last. "Time to get serious, ya know?" Raijin went strait for Zell, tucking the end of his staff under his arm, turning around and striking him with a backhand. Zell stumbled back, falling to the ground, unconscious.

Squall quickly used a Phoenix Down on him, making him sit up with a deep breath. "Uh, thanks."

Irvine tossed him a Hi-potion. "Next time be careful." Irvine told him.

Zell drank the bitter liquid hastily, then tossed the bottle aside and climbed to his feet.

"I warned you." Squall said, obviously annoyed.

"Yeah, Whatever." Zell was ready to fight again, but Carbuncle summoned himself on the field before he even realized it. "Huh?" A black hole opened up with a stream of red light above their heads, out of thin air. Carbuncle fell through, landing on the ground at Zell's feet with a thump. "Carbuncle?" Zell looked down at him questingly, lowering his fist lightly.

Squall looked over at Zell, who couldn't have summoned the GF since he had been incapacitated 10 seconds ago "What?" Zell didn't even notice him and Irvine just shrugged.

Carbuncle rubbed his head with his small paws, since he landed on his back, then got to his feet "Hold on, I wanna try something! I promise it wont hurt," He used his Carbuncle limit break, the red Jewel on his forehead shifting to white and his whole body glowed with the same colored light. "Hnnnnngggga!" With a strained growl the light expelled from his head in such intensity that it rushed toward Zell and the others in a wall.

It stopped just ahead of them and vanished along with the small GF, Casting protect, shell, Barrier, haste, regain, aura, and reflect, along with some other effects still not known.

Irvine summoned Leviathan right after, the 3 of them the serpent appeared in the form of water. A steep mountain of rock rose from the ground beneath Leviathan as his long body began to glow then exploded in to tidal wave of rushing water that roared down the small mountain. The thick wave crushed Raijin and Fujin, washing them out.

Fujin made her way to her feet soaking wet and angry, she drew her arm back and tossed the bladed projectile at Squall, slashing him across the chest with a rapidly drilling weapon. On the boomerang it stuck him across the arm and returned to her.

Squall winced lightly, noting the high damage of that was inflicted, lifting his hand and countering with A Tornado spell. Strong winds from nowhere started to whip around them, tearing them up away from the ground along with a few chunks of the from. They were ripped and torn by the strong winds, crashing to the ground.

Apparently one of the effects or carbuncle was that it raised magic, that was all it took to defeat them.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

The next destination was Trabia Garden by the request of Seiphie, but apon arrival they found that it had been destroyed by missile attacks.

With nothing better to do, they ended up talking in an attempt to figure some things out, also reveling the down side to junctioning, memory loss. They established that their next destination should Edea's orphanage. But before heading off they decided to rest at the Garden.

_**Never too busy, I'm never too busy for you babe, never too busy  
I've got things on my mind **_

Zell went directly to his room, heading strait for the bed to shake off the exestuation of the Trabia snow cap acquired by 2 hours of hard training with his GF. It felt good to get off his feet, enough to make him inanely let out a sigh of relief, the first thing he did was kick off his shoes and take off his shirt, tossing it messily aside and watch it land on top of his dresser. The cooler air felt good against his overworked and over heated skin.

Carbuncle came out eventually, laying in his favorite spot between Zell's waist and stomach, but it took a moment to find it exactly since it wasn't the easiest place to find. Zell didn't mind, he just laid with his arms behind his head and one knee drawn up, finding it amusing to watch how Carbuncle grunted in annoyment when he didn't quite get it and have to get up and shift around again.

_**I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy  
If you're feeling alone   
**_

Zell smirked when after twenty minutes or so Carbuncle had found what he was looking for. "So, was it worth it?"

"Huh?" Carbuncle laid his head and his paws, letting his ears drop down to his head.

"That thing you always do." Zell was referring to the ritual Carbuncle did every time he decided to lay on Zell, some times he found the position he wanted immediately, other times it took him a lot longer, but either way he always kept going until he found it.

Carbuncle nodded, "Yup." And it was, this was comfortable, just the right amount of tone and softness. He liked this spot. "Definitely worth it."

Zell laughed lightly, at lest he was happy. "Alright keep going." Zell lowed his hand to Carbuncle's hand and petting softly him.

Carbuncle may have been 483 years older than him but he still liked being held by Zell, he always knew the right spots to rub, which some times put him in a bad position when Zell wanted him to do something. "With what?"

"The story you were telling me." Zell closed his eyes, still petting the small GF.

_**I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy **_

"Alright, today I'll tell you about Centra, well... the Centra Ruins now." Carbuncle leaned his head upward into the warm hand, letting out another deep breath before he started. "Way back 100 years ago it used to be 6 cities that made up a huge kingdom. I know, I went a few times. It stretched almost over the whole Centra content, well you really couldn't see it now that content used to be a lot bigger than it was. It was great, the safest place in the world. No monsters or nothing like that, they had people to take care of em. " A hint of forlorn came into his voice "It _was_ great, just wide open plains and fields and stuff like that, even a forest."

_**Girl when we first started we were spending all our time together in love   
Now we're growin' on and you're afraid of losing me, don't be **_

__

"Really? It doesn't look anything remotely like that now."

"Well it was back when Adel first became sorceress and the Lunatic Paradona was first found out about and being excavated. They found it under water someplace really close to Centra, turned out to be a bad thing... This thing they called 'Battleship Island' found it."

Zell knew about that... "I know what that is, it was a mobile research facility."

That explained a lot. "Oh. Now that make sense."

_**I've got a heart full of love even though I might not show it  
Girl it's you I dream of and just so you know it **_

"Well they were trying to figure out how it worked, it took them ten years, I know, I was watching the whole time. But Centra was growing, it was the perfect place to be, I was watching that happen too. It was a... What's the word for it………uh?" Carbuncle paused, looking over at Zell questingly in the hopes that he could offer a suggesting.

"A utopia?"

"Yeah that's it, Utopia. It was also the only place not under Ester's... well Adel's control. It was run by a guy named King Baron, I think that was his name... whatever it was, he was doing a good job."

_**You have my attention, anything you need at all  
I'll be there when you call me  
**_

Carbuncle shifted a little, the jewel on his head gleaming lightly "This was also when the world was still evolving too, I wish you could have seen the changes, amazing really. Just a hundred years ago people were still using Materia."

Zell's eyes rolled up to the ceiling, he knew he heard that... "Materia………I learned about that in history class. Weren't they these orb things."

"Yup, But people kinda had to stop, all of it just snapped one day."

That was confusing..."What do you mean snapped?"

_**I've got things on my mind, takin' my time, but I'm...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy  
**_

"Well a long time ago, this thing called the life stream used to go all around the world, it was under ground, like the blood of the planet kind of ting. It used to be a place called the………what was it………Farplane but it kinda changed into the Life stream after a long time." Carbuncle said, realizing he was digressing on what he'd heard some 200 odd years go. "Well anyway it changed again, and all the Materia broke, people found out that the Life stream was connected to the Materia, and when that changed, the Materia weren't running on anything. What was I talking about?"

Carbuncle definitely was digressing... Zell had almost forget the original conversation. "How good Centra was."

"Yeah, great place."

"Wait, If all the Materia broke, how did people summon and use magic and stuff?"

_**If you're feeling alone, just pick up the phone, 'cause I...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy **_

"We changed in to GF's, I told you evolution." Carbuncle hadn't changed, it wasn't even a metamorphous per say, just a realization of a new way to use their powers.

"Cool."

"Yeah, yeah well, anyway, Adel, out of greed or the possibility that there were more things like the Lunatic Pandora hidden there, declared war with Centra. Well not declared per-say, they didn't say anything to King Barron, he just kinda figured it out when a whole bunch of soldiers came barging into one of their cities. Which was kinda stupid because they were also fighting Galbadia at the time and Centra was ready and waiting with a _really_ big army."

_**We used to dream that one day we'd have everything we want  
But now that things are movin', I hope that we don't move apart **_

_**You still have my heart **_

"Really, sounds exciting." Zell slowly began to lift himself up, slow enough to give the GF some warning "Oh man, I'd better take a bath."

Carbuncle jumped off of him with a disappointed groan, landing on the bed, Zell pushed his legs over the side of the bed and pushed himself on his feet, stretching his arms above his head with a light yawn. That much training really took it out of you.

Zell crouched down next to his drawer and retrieved one of the towels sitting on top. Throwing it over his shoulders and clinching at the sides with both hands. He walked out he door, then stopped and walked backwards.

_**I've got so much to do, but girl it doesn't matter  
But when it comes down to you I can't think of nothing better **_

"Hey!" Zell turned around, "What are you waiting for, come on! I wanna hear the rest of the story."

Carbuncle rose up from the bed questioningly but didn't really ask, he just slowly followed the boy to the bathroom and sat down on the tiled floors next to the door... "What are you doing Zell?"

"I wanna hear the story." Zell untied his belt, letting his shorts fall to the ground where he kicked them aside. Carbuncle had to step to the side to avoid them.

When his hands grabbed the rim of his boxers……… "What are you doing!" Carbuncle shouted.

_**Every time I'm stressin', I find that it's a blessin' to  
To be hearin' from you  
**_

"What are you talking about, You seen me naked before."

He had, many times actually, but still this time was a little different, a lot of time had passed between now and when they first met. "But………"

'What's with him?' "Calm down." He pushed his boxers down and opened the shower door, reaching in to turn on the water. He waited until it was filled almost to the rim, taking off his socks and giving Carbuncle a light pat on the top of his head, pushing down his ears. After a few more moments he turned off the water stepped in to the tub when it was thoroughly full. "Come on already."

Carbuncle let out a sigh of defeat, jumping into the tub with a small splash. The water was the perfect temperature, dually noted. Carbuncle opened his eyes, looking through the wavy vision as his body sank to the bottom of the tub, landing directly in Zell's lap, he was tempted to stay there if not for his need of air, damn lungs. So after a few seconds Carbuncle swam to the surface, finding himself look up at Zell.

_**I've got things on my mind, takin' my time, but I'm...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy  
**_

"Well anyway." Carbuncle started again, climbing up on to slippery porcelain surface and setting himself on the edge of the tub next to Zell's head. " Centra kept waiting and waiting, and Ester never really and truly attacked. Until one day the Lunatic Paradona floated over the center of Centra."

_**If you're feeling alone, pick up the phone and call me, 'cause I...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy **_

"It was actually the lunar cry called down Lunatic Paradona. I was there."

Zell reached up and petted him softly, it was a habit. "Hey, don't you need a bath too?" Zell asked.

"Uh, maybe." Why not, he was already wet.

Carbuncle slowly eased on to Zell's chest, staying barley above water by half swimming and half clinching to the wet flesh. "What was it like?"

Carbuncle shuttered at the thought, and Zell immediately pulled him closer in a comforting matter when he saw the reaction. "It was the scariest thing I ever been through in my life. Everything was on fire, and the earth quakes were so strong, you couldn't even try to move with out falling. The sky was red, everything was so dark you couldn't see anything, and monsters were raining from the sky. If they didn't die from the fall... "

_**Whenever you need me  
**_

Carbuncle decided to skip that part, he just didn't want to think about it. "The content broke in half, then the half broke in half. _Nobody_ survived... No somebody lived, if you could call it that." Zell slowly went over Carbuncle's body with the soap, dipping down in the warm water and gently scrubbing his short fur as he held him with one hand against his chest. "The king became Odin."

"What? How dose a human become a GF?"

"I don't know..." That would just remain an unsolved mystery, there was no real way of finding out. "After the lunar cry, the place was destroyed, and Thornberrys moved in to what was left of Centra. The only thing still standing is the castle...all of that gone...it was that Damn machine's fault."

_**I've got things on my mind, takin' my time, but I'm...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy  
**_

"Don't get too mad about it, can't change the past right?" Zell lifted himself out of the tub after rinsing Carbuncle in a rather undignifying mater, quickly drying off with the towel he had carried in and then using it on Carbuncle.

"I guess." Carbuncle followed him out of the bath room, watching Zell ruffle the towel into his hair to dry the blond strands. Giving the small GF an interesting view, not one he hadn't seen before though.

Zell found a fresh set of clothing in his dresser and changed into them, Carbuncle took his seat on the bed, Zell laying down next to him. "Long story short, everything was destroyed and somehow Odin became a GF." Carbuncle on to Zell's torso, who quickly found his prized spot. "I'm going to sleep..."

"Yeah, me too."

_**If you're feeling alone, pick up the phone and call me, 'cause I...  
I'm not too busy for you, I'm not too busy **_

! - ! - !

**Never to busy by Kenny Lattimore**


	8. Chapter 7: Challenge

Chapter 7: Challenge

Nida had called Squall up to the cockpit of the garden with the preemptive that this was an emergency. And it was. "Squall, we have a big problem on our hands." With one hand still clinching the overly large throttle, Nida handed Squall his high precision binoculars. "Take a look."

Squall lifted the binoculars to his eyes and peered out the cockpit window with Zoom magnifying his vision. He could see something oddly suspicious, it must have been what Nida was talking about. A far distance off on the cost near the orphanage they were approaching he spotted Galbadia Garden. Zooming in even closer he could see the Galbadian army lining the front entrance, very suspicious. He'd have to be a moron not to figure it out.

Nida reclaimed the binoculars, setting them aside while awaiting Squall's answer "What do you think?"

'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?' Ifrit asked knowingly.

(They probably know we're here, too. If not, we'll make the first move.) "The battle is inevitable." Squall replied.

"The sorceress is with them, huh?" Nida let out a sigh, partly from nervousness but mostly from anxiousness. "So this is going to be the final Battle?"

Squall gave a passive nod to the fellow SeeD. "I hope so."

He knew he had to make a statement, get everyone ready. (What should I do first? I have to give orders to everybody, It's my responsibility, I have to try to keep it simple. If I give out too many orders, it could lead to chaos. What should I say? Come on think! There's no time!)

'Squall, calm down you'll do fine.' Ifrit reassured him. 'Just tell them what's happening and to get ready.'

Nida handed him the microphone , "Give out orders when you're ready."

Squall reluctantly took it, thinking for a moment on what to say.

"This is Squall speaking." He finally got it together. "This is an emergency so listen carefully, We're going into battle against Galbadia Garden. 1st and 2nd Class Sabers, assemble in the parking lot, Those with MG Rank 3 or above, head for the 2nd floor deck and await instructions. Be sure to warm up. Quistis, Zell, Seiphie, come up to the bridge right away."

Before he could think of anything else, Dr. Kadowaki came up the lift, and Squall instinctively handed her the microphone. "This is Dr. Kadowaki, I'd like to make some additional requests. Students who have Student ID numbers ending with an 8, please take care of the junior classmen. Is that alright with you, Squall?" She handed him back the microphone when she gained a positive response.

"The enemy will probably come aboard, we must concentrate our forces at the front gate and the quad. If your Student ID number is even, report to the quad. If it's odd, report to the front gate."

He gave the mic back to Nida, giving him a small instruction to wait before he headed down stairs. Irvine, Quistis and Seiphie were waiting for him, minus Zell who he headed for the quad to look for.

!- ! - !

"S'up, Squall! I got this place covered." Zell announced on Squall's arrival

Squall made a quick decent of the small line of stairs in the quad's entrance. "I thought you were sleeping."

" Oh...! Yeah, y-your announcement woke me up! My student ID is even, so I'm supposed to be here, right?" Zell rubbed the back of his head, nervous about something... "Yo, Squall come here for a sec... It's about your ring, this might not be the time, but…"

Squall looked at him questingly, then down at his finger where the ring in question rested. "………What is it?"

"Give me your ring, will ya? I just wanna borrow it for a while, I won't lose it or anything. C'mon, what do you say?" Zell looked at him in the most pleading face he could make.

"Why do you need it?"

"Uh…" Zell looked away, trying to think of an answer "……I can't tell you that. C'mon, just give it to me. You can trust _me_."

(What the hell... I like this ring... I...guess it's all right if he just wants to borrow it...) With a bit of hesitation he removed the ring from his finger and handed it to Zell . "Don't lose it."

"YEAH! THANKS MAN! I didn't think you were gonna give it to me, Rinoa is gonna be so happy!"

"Rinoa?"

Zell smirked proudly "Alright, Squall! Leave this place up to me."

! - ! - !

Squall was called back to the bridge where Nida informed him that Seifer was in charge over at Galbadia garden. And they got the upper hand by attacking first, the Galbadian Soldier launched themselves on motorcycles over to Balamb Garden as Galbadia rammed in to them mainly to move their troops. In the battle of strength Balamb was losing. Wave after wave of Galbadian solders were launching in to Balamb and the students were barley holding them off.

After a source of inspiration from in unexpected source, and a quite daring rescue, Squall and the others decided to cut the problem off at the source. Now all they had to do was get in.

With Zell and Rinoa with him, they rushed out of Balamb Garden from the quad into the heat of a battle fierce. Even Nida had his hands full in the cockpit since Galbadia solders had made it up there in an attempt to do the same thing they were, cutting the problem off at the source. "Whoa! Look at this place." Zell gashed, the area between the Gardens, which had taken a short reprieve from physical battles of power, was filled with fighting students from the two faculties. The sounds of screaming, clashing weapons and explosions sounded in an overwhelming volume. Magic detonated around them, bullets flew past them, all of the students clashed together in a desperate fight, it was complete chaos. And they ran directly through the middle of it, barley making it across in one piece.

Finally they entered through the front gate, making it in to Galbadia garden.

! - ! - !

They wandered through the mix of halls, monsters and blue clad solders until they entered the main hall where all the corridors convened...

"What is that?" Squall looked ahead to the center of the circular room, staring in amazement at a large gray beast with three dog heads and red streak going across it's side, standing in gold light that shined down from the ceiling obviously emitted by it and not by any other light source.

Zell waited apprehensively behind Squall, noticing that it wasn't attacking them but it no doubt had noticed... 'Carbuncle, you got any idea?'

(It's a GF…)

'MORTALS, WHAT DO YOU WANT." It spoke in a voice that was actually normal, just sounded deep and loud, booming actually.

"Uh...What are you doing here?" Zell asked.

"FOOLS, LEAVE." The GF growled

"Uh? No..." Zell curiously walked past Squall, heading towards the dog creature with careful steps.

"What are you doing?" Squall asked in a chastising voice.

"He's a GF right? I wanna challenge him."

The GF snorted and laid down, resting his heads on his paws. "MORTALS, YOU THINK THAT YOU CAN DEFEAT ME?"

"Come on Zell, We don't have time for this." Squall objected.

Zell dropped his head with a sigh, as much as he wanted to try this he couldn't. "I guess your right." Disappointedly Zell turned around and rejoined with his other two team mates. " Sorry, we'll have to do this another time, wait for me. Ok!" Zell flashed a grin, gave a quick thumbs up then ran back to the previous hall, going up the steps toward the third floor.

! - ! - !

Squall, Rinoa and Zell waited at the elevator that headed up to the next level... "Well this is it, Seifer's up there." Squall told them, loading his gun blade.

"I've been waiting for this for a long time." Zell pounded his fist in to his hand, waiting in anticipation.

"Your that anxious to fight?" Rinoa asked.

"Seifer, yes, Matron, hell no."

The elevator dinged, rolling it's doors open. "Alright this is it, get ready.

! - ! - !

Seifer was waiting for them just as they had expected, Edea waiting behind him who was content to watch from their . "Oh, you guys shouldn't have... I was gonna come visit you at my old home." Seifer said with a fake graciousness.

"Shut up." Squall growled.

"Did you guys come to fight Matron? After all that she's done for us?" Seifer shook his head, glancing at Zell from the corner of his eyes. "Hey Chicken-wuss. Lot's happened between us, eh?" He laughed.

"Yeah! I'm dyin' to get even!" Zell was the first to get with in fighting distance of Seifer, tightening his gloves.

"Rinoa, what are you doing here? You gonna fight me, too? Come on, remember a year ago we…"

"Stop it!" She yelled.

Squall lifted his gun blade "It's too late, Seifer, you can't mess with our minds. To us, you're just another enemy, like one of those monsters."

"You're comparing ME to one of them? I ain't no monster, I'm the sorceress' knight. And look at you, attacking like a swarm, you guys are the monsters."

Zell started off in limit break from pint up furry, running at Seifer, drawing his fist back and throwing a strong punch to his stomach. Making him arch over with an audible grunt. Zell thrust his fist upward and punched in the chin, then sending blow to the right side of his face. He jumped back a few steps, lifting his foot above his head and hammering his heel down on Seifer's head, knocking him to the ground.

Seifer growled in anger, shaking his ruffled hair back into place "You little asshole!" He jumped to his feet with a trust of his arm out and forcing Zell to stumble back with a wave of upward rising fire. Then lifting his gun blade he charged at Zell, slashing him across the chest with an upward slice, he spent around, cutting him again with a spurt of blood that splatter across the ground. A strong wind surrounded Zell as Seifer picked up speed in his turns, striking him over and over. Zell was lifted in the air as a raging Tornado surrounded formed around him. Zell groaned in pain as Seifer continued to strike the same place over and over until Finally Seifer stopped, the winds ceased, and Zell fell to the ground hard.

Squall was waiting for Seifer as soon as he landed, swinging his gun blade at him. The first attempt missed, but Squall pulled it back up raked the silver blade across his shoulder. Rinoa followed with a Demi spell, causing a black whirl of gravity to wash over Seifer in an oppressive force. "Ahhhaa...!" Seifer cringed, clinching his chest in an attempt to keep himself from falling to the ground, letting out a breath of relief when the force subsided.

Seifer cast triple on himself, then a Thundaga spell on all three of them.

A pillar of lighting slammed down from the ceiling in a blinding light, sending an uncountable number of watts surging through their body intense enough to leave behind a small flame and scorch mark on the ground. Squall and Rinoa fell to their knees where Zell absorbed the lighting strike from some mix of junctioning, countering with Firaga spell

A burst combustion of flames erupted loudly over Seifer, throwing his ignited body into the wall along side Edea and sliding to the smoldering to the ground. He seemed unable to get back up...

"Worthless child." Edea lifted herself from her seat, giving one last disgusted look Seifer's way before she started to approach the three. Or so it seemed she would, but instead she unexpectedly began to sink through the ground as if only an illusion .

"What the hell?" Zell looked around frantically, half expecting a surprise attack to come. But it was apparent that none would come.

"The auditorium is under here, let's go!" Rinoa, being the first to realize, waved them to the elevator, leaving Seifer behind.

! - ! - !

Wasting no time, they made their way to the auditorium.

"Huh? She's not here?"

They looked around the large room and the high volume of seats and a podium in the center, all surrounded by large screams, they found nothing.

The large screens shattered all at once, and Edea floated through in mid air being held by some invisible force, surrounded by a spray of glass shards that rained over the three. Squall lifted his arm over his face, just barely able to lifted his head enough to watch the sorceress. "So the time has come. You're the legendary SeeD destined to face me?"

Squall shook the stray glass from his hair, lowing his arm. (What is she talking about?)

"I must say that I am impressed. ...An impressive nuisance." Edea landed agilely on her feet before them. "Your life ends here, SeeD."

Before they could engage in battle, a familiar sound came from behind them. Edea shook her head and rolled her eyes in annoyment. "Worthless fools." Edea said with a roll of her eyes, watching Seifer make his way to her side and stand before her.

He was barely standing, struggling to keep from falling face first to the ground. "I'm the sorceress' knight." He called out, his voice weak and strained. "You'll never...get past me!"

"Seifer, what the hell is wrong with you!" Zell got in to a fighting stance, wondering what could drive some one to be so persistent.

It didn't take much to defeat him. An attack from Zell and Squall was enough in succession took him down. What ever little fight he had left in him had faded "Ughaah! ...Damn, I'm disgraced." He dropped to the ground and drifted out of conciseness.

Edea steeped over him, looking down at him with even more annoyment then she held before. "Defeated... Useless fool." She turned to them, "Enough play. SeeDs must die!" She lifter her hand in to the air, with powers as a sorceress flowing a Black whirl of energy appeared in an orb form, it forced itself to expand like a wave, cover them in black energy. Squall was blinded by it, Zell was poisoned and Rinoa was silenced.

"Oh man What the hell was that?" Zell reached in to his back pocket, retrieving out a remedy, holding his nose he drank the bitter liquid in one quick swallow and tossed the vile aside.

A quiet Rinoa placed a bottle of Eye drops in Squall's hands who was able maneuver them into his eyes while he continued his summoning of Ifrit. Edea continued, casting triple on herself.

The group faded seemingly out of existence as Ifrit exploded out of the ground on the large meteor. Squall boosted him with through the junction as Ifrit stretched his limber body back and hammered his cuffed fist into the burning rock, sending it crashing down on Edea.

Rinoa followed with a Pandemonium summoning making them fade again before they completely reappeared. The large and colorful wind guardian inhaled deeply, sucking Edea in to his large pouch, tearing at her with blade like winds. Then he forced her out in a rushing tornado.

Edea landed with a wince o pain... "Fools" She lifted her hands again, casting 3 Flare spells by using the triple in effect, the rush of a red force exploded on to them. Again the energy came on to them before they had a chance to recover, them backwards in a mixture of different cries of pain. The third exploded on to them, this time knocking out Zell.

Zell had a higher physical defense and speed, but his magic defense was weak just as Squall's was high in HP and strength. Squall was able to stand the attack because of his HP. Rinoa had high magic defense and by a single HP she was luckily able to withstand it.

Squall quickly rustled around his inventory for a phoenix down, using the Phoenix's feather on Zell when he found it, reviving him with a red light.

With her last bit of strength Rinoa used her limit break... Angelo Cast invincible moon on the three of them, giving them complete immunity to all attacks.

After that it was easy to win with a round of summoning attacks, just barley doing it before the effect expired.

! - !- !

It seemed that they had won, but it apparently wasn't over. A bright light, white light...it was shining, growing, so intense that none of them could see, they had thought they went blind when everything whited out and they both feel lifelessly to the ground.

(What happened………?) Squall... couldn't feel anything, as if he was completely detached from himself. Maybe he was, he couldn't even feel the constant presence of Ifrit... (My………Body………) Squall strained, finally breathing a small sigh of relief when the whiteness started to clear away. He couldn't move, but he could see a fogy vision, he could see Rinoa.

(Rinoa…………………!Riona………Seifer.)

Seifer weakly made his way over to the Rinoa who stood up as if in a complete daze, her eyes weren't even open... She whispered something in his ear, then collapsed in a lifeless pile on the ground...

By the time white completely cleared away Edea was standing over them, looking confused as ever... "Squall, Quistis, Seiphie, Irvine, Zell?... You've all grown so much... and become so strong... I have waited for this day to come, and also feared this day would come. Is today a joyous day? Or an odious day?" Her voice suddenly became frantic... "Where is Ellone? Have I protected Ellone?"

(I don't understand.)

He didn't have time to comprehend it all before Quistis ran in to the room, helping him on to his feet with a light pull. "Squall! It's Rinoa…"

(...Rinoa? What's wrong with Rinoa?)

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Squall carried Rinoa, who for some reason wouldn't wake up, and escorted Edea along with Quistis. Zell was the last to leave.

He sat in the center of the auditorium, Carbuncle standing in his lap, helping him heal up. He had few physical wounds, mostly just one's caused by magic, and magic wounds were easy to heal with potions and other magic.

"Your sure your alright?" Carbuncle asked.

Zell rubbed his head, finally regaining the rest of his senses after 20 minutes of waiting. "Yeah, I'm fine." He was fully healed and ready to go.

"Zell!" Irvine's voice rang in to the large room from the hall, echoing off the walls enough to make his direction unclear.

"I'm here!"

Following Zell's voice he made his way into the auditorium, resting the double barrels of his shotgun over his shoulder. "You alright?" He asked, looking at the two.

"Yeah, fine." He nodded a knowing hello to Carbuncle who nodded back.

"We were going to go fight that GF downstairs, you wanna help?" Zell asked, standing to his feet with Carbuncle wrapped in his arms.

"Oh, that's Cerberus, sure I'd love to."

! - ! - !

"Hey! Did you miss me?" Zell jumping over the banister from the second to the first floor, Irvine taking the stairs instead .

"FOOLS, I DIDN'T THINK YOU WERE STUPID ENOUGH TO COME BACK."

Irvine was the first to get in fighting range, seemingly knowing what he was doing. "Wow, your _mighty_ confident of yourself." He tipped his hat upward then lifted his gun.

With Carbuncle junctioned Zell was the first to attack. Using a Thundaga spell and causing a white stream of electricity to streak down from some place unknown in large enough volumes to engulf Cerberus's whole torso with a powerful electrocution.

"Watch it, he's going to use Triple." Irvine warned, knowing how quick the three headed beast could be.

"How do you know so much about it?"

Irvine's expression shifted into a reminiscent one. "Cerberus was in the basement of this garden…"

Irvine lowered one eye to the level of the gun's barrel for more accuracy , aiming for one of the heads. "Nobody else knew he was down there except me. Yeah, I was down there a lot, I'd used to practice fighting with him." As expected Cerberus used triple on himself, but Zell was ready with a de-spell spell. The beast countered the magic, turning around swiftly enough to swing his tail at both of them, the two of them sliding back with a matching pair of bruises on their chests.

Irvine quickly picked himself up, firing a well placed bullet directly in-between the first and second heads.

Zell continued the attack, running up to Cerberus and punching the center head with strong uppercut hard enough to make the three headed dog draw back.

Apparently Cerberus liked to do three things, all off which Irvine was ready for. One, Speed himself up, two, Cast triple, three, counter. He countered everything but Irvine's long range attacks.

Cerberus cast Reflect on himself, just in time to reflect Zell's incoming Bio attack. Foul smelling bubbles of chunky green liquid surrounded Zell, coming from under him and engulfed him in venomous liquid that burned like acid, leaving him poisoned him. He coughed, holding his neck and dropping to his knees as if he was choking. "Uck.."

Irvine fired another round of ammo in to Cerberus who twitched when the hot metal intruded into his skin. With a small growl of pain escaping from one of his mouths, Cerberus cast reflect on Irvine, then a Haste spell that mirrored off of him back on to Cerberus to bypass his own reflect spell..

Zell looked around in his back pocket, finding another antidote and drinking the bitter antibody hastily enough to spill some, a few drops streaming down his chin which he wiped away. "You ok over there Zell?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Cerberus reflected three Haste spells off Irvine, each one going to one of his heads, tripling the effect.

With the new boost of speed, he rammed Zell with his shoulder hard enough to seemed the boy tumbling backwards, using his quick agility Cerberus rammed Irvine with his one of his closest heads. Then in a blur of gray the large canine jumped in the air, pouncing on Zell with his left paw stomping down hard on him, whipping Irvine with his tail just as Irvine readied another round. Zell kicked him in the stomach hard enough to ease the hold of the paw caving in his chest the rolled to the side, flipping himself on to his feet.

"Irvine! Shoot him!"

With out a word Irvine cocked the gun and pulled the trigger, stopping Cerberus for only a second but giving Zell enough time to cast a Dispel spell.

But the spell was only able to take off the reflect effect and haste from one head. It would take at lest two more spells to rid the other two.

(Zell, you guys are losing, bad. Let me help.)

With his health starting to get low, and Cerberus still too fast to handle, Zell started summoning Carbuncle.

Cerberus turned around quickly, slamming his tail in to Irvine sending him back. He came for Zell ramming him again and sending him in to the wall.

Zell scrambled to his feet, watching Cerberus running at him with fangs barred. Zell did a back flip, jumping out of the range of Cerberus and letting his back hit the wall. Zell pushed off the wall with his hands and a small kick from his feet, sending himself higher into the air. Then raised his leg above his head as Cerberus jumped, ready to counter with a whip of his tail.

Zell forced his heel down, kicking Cerberus in the head before the beast could attack. As his body plummeted to the Cerberus countered, turning around in the air whipping his tail into the side of Zell's head, then kick Zell with his hind legs.

But it felt Cerberus was hitting brick wall, a surface too wide and even to be a human body.

Zell landed on the ground unaffected by the attack, glancing toward the center of the room where Carbuncle stood with a victorious grin. The small GF jumped back, flashing another taunting grin before curling in to a ball and falling back in to the hole he'd come from after successfully using his limit break Diamond shield on Zell. Diamond Shield was an unsurpassed physical defense, most things couldn't even move it let alone get through.

Irvine opened the chamber of his weapon and loaded it with AP ammo with a skilful quickness that came from years of practice, Then closed the open chamber with a snap and started firing. "Hey, Remember Me?" Irvine knew the best ammo to use on Cerberus was AP, it went right through his defenses.

Each round had enough force to drive the GF back a few steps, pushing him in to the cracked wall he ran in to before.

Cerberus growled in pain, keeling lightly by the time Irvine finished. "YOUR STRONG FOR MORTALS…"

Cerberus silently gave up, agreeing to join. Of course he junctioned with Irvine.


	9. Chapter 8: Lost and Found

Chapter 8: Lost and Found

Squall waited at Rinoa's side in the infirmary, he didn't move for three days. Zell brought him food and checked in on him from time to time, most of the time he even waited with him when he wasn't training to kill time. It was a mystery, a real and true mystery, no one could figure out what had happened to her.

At Edea's house, Matron explained what happened to her, how she was possessed by Ultimecia and her goal of time compression.

! - ! - !

It was like a sudden earthquake, the whole garden shuck violently with one large jump. Unsuspecting Zell was sent sprawling out of his chair, hitting his head roughly on the ground as the chair fell on top of him. Squall, a little bit more balanced, dashed outward to catch Rinoa who fell out of the bed on account of the quake .

Zell pushed the chair off of himself, reaching to grab hold of a small cabinet and pull himself up with his support, rubbing the back of his head "What the hell was that?"

"I don't know." Squall gently laid the sleeping girl back on to the bed, one foot placed back and his eyes shifting around cautiously just in case another similar shift happened. "I'll"

"Don't worry about it." Zell waved his hand dismissingly, turning towards the door. "I'll go find out." Zell called back, walking out of the infirmary.

! - ! - !

Everyone in the hallways were picking themselves up, replacing things that had fallen, all of the voices clamoring in a confused uproar.

No one here knew, (Maybe...we crashed into something?)

With that thought in mind Zell headed for the elevator positioned undisturbed in the center of the lobby, noticing it hadn't sustained any damage on the ride up to the third floor. When he reached it he noticed that things up here were in moderate disarray, glass shards covered the ground among debris. Zell dismissed it as apart of the quake, though notably checking around to see where the glass had come from exactly. The double pained glass that made up the windshield above him had been shattered, leaving the second layer in tact. (Hmm...)

Zell pressed a button on the wall to call down the lift, then stepped on to the steel platform when it finally came down to his level and rose up to the cockpit... "Nida!"

The young, black haired pilot was on his knees, leaning against the throttle, breathing heavily with eyes shut tightly. The second thing Zell noticed was that he was leaning his whole body weight against the throttle "What's wrong?"

Nida didn't respond, unable too, he just clinched his chest tightly, a pained expression forming across his face. "I………!………I!" Nida was trying his best to speak, uttering out a few incoherent sounds in his attempt, but he failed again. Nida collapsed, falling unconscious before Zell or at lest that how he looked. Zell could still see that Nida was squirming and twitching lightly.

A confused Zell started to panic. (OH MAN OH MAN OH MAN! NIDA!)

"Hold on man!"

Zell knelt down next to Nida, pulling him over his shoulder and heading down the lift.

! - ! - !

Zell came bursting through the door of the infirmary with Nida in his arms, dashing past Squall and laying him down on a spare bed next to Rinoa. "Dr. Kadowaki!"

A the abrupt crash of Zell's entrance and the shout of his voice Dr. Kadowaki abandoned what she was doing and came hastily over to see the cause of the fuss. "What happened?"

"I don't know, after that shaking thinking happened I went up to the cockpit to see what was happening and he was holding his chest, then he just collapsed and"

"Calm down." Dr. Kadowaki stepped in front of Zell to examine Nida herself, first checking to see if he was breathing, then placing two fingers on his neck to check his pulse. Zell with evident worry, though managing to keep silent while he do so, watched her second after second as she began to using a few instruments, checking his heart beat, blood pressure, and other readings from other instruments. When she was done, she drew a opaque liquid from a vile into a needle and gave him a shot.

"What's that for?" Zell asked, finally deeming it alright to talk again with out worrying about disturbing her.

"A mild heart attack, knowing him it was from exhaustion and stress."

"Heart attack! What did you give him?"

"A type of enzyme." She explained, "This will help clear the arteries of any platelets that have built up and blood to flow more easily." Well, that was all she could do for the moment, since this was brought on by stress the rest was up Nida, "Don't worry, he'll be alright. He right now he needs some rest."

Dr. Kadowaki forced him out of the room so Nida could get some sleep in peace.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"What happened?" Squall asked upon Zell's return, Zell didn't have a chance to give Squall any explanation before.

"Dr. Kadowaki said Nida had a heart attack." Zell sighed, reclaiming his seat next to Squall.

"Will he be alright?"

Zell nodded "Yeah, he should be fine."

Squall paused for a moment, looking toward the room Nida was currently resting inside of, hmm... "What did we crash in to?"

"I'm not sure, but maybe we should check it out."

! - ! - !

Zell persuaded Squall to come up to the cockpit and take a look.

"What is it?" Squall looked down on the tall structure from the windshield. It seemed to be a helipad with a bridge leading to the inside of a protruding door on the edge... There were towers along side of it, with guns and cannons protruding, along with cranes.

"I recognize it from someplace." Zell tried to think of what it was but he just couldn't remember, all he knew was that he'd seen that place.

"We'd better get down there, Look." Squall pointed to a large monster, a red dragon that was banging the side of it's body against the side of the Garden repeatedly, almost as if it was trying to get in side, it probably was.

"Alright, meet me at the side door." Zell said, heading down the lift.

! - ! - !

Zell opened the door to his dorm, walking over to his bed room promptly with a clear direction. He found that Carbuncle was sleeping on the bed peacefully, curled up on top of the sheet just as he left him.

"Hey get up!" Zell shouted, easily waking him.

The sleepy GF blinked a few times, the wordlessly stood up and junctioned himself to Zell with a yawn.

! - ! - !

Zell found Squall waiting at the side door, just as he requested, Seiphie was with him being the closest person for him to round up.

"Ready?" Squall asked, holding the handle of the emergency door.

"Uh-huh." Seiphie cheerfully replied,

"Yup." Zell pulled on his gloves, clinching his hands into a fist and relaxing them a few times before nodding.

Squall turned the handle and pushed opened the door, revealing a Ruby Dragon staring them in the face with that haunting smile.

It roared, spitting out a blaze of fire into the garden hall. All three of them scrambled out of the way, hiding behind the wall the door was framed into, "Hey! It can't fit in side, this will be too easy!" Seiphie said confidently lifted her hands and casting an Blizzara spell with out looking, watching as a spray of ice come through the doorway and a growl of pain from the attack.

Squall turned from the wall and came at it as it roared at him as soon as he was spotted, it's mouth wide as it about to use its Fire breath. He could see the ambers spray from it's mouth along with wavy air distorted by heat, Squall didn't give it a chance to release the heat before plunged his gun blade tip first down it's throat, just as the fire began to pour out, cutting it off at the source. The dragon started to back away just as Squall pulled his weapon from it's mouth. Letting out a drowning growl and falling to the floor with a cough of blood and a suffocating feeling emanating to death.

With the path cleared, they walked out on to the helipad, across the 'H' insignia on to a metal bridge spanning the gap between this and the door. The bridge, the whole place, seemed old, plant growth had created cracks in the ground and thick foliage covered the bridge, abandoned for years it seemed. Which was what triggered Zell's memory "Hey! I remember this place now!" Zell said, pounding his fist into his hand with a proud look on his face. "Know-it-all-Zell to the rescue baby!"

Squall started to rub his temples, a headache forming "Let's hear it."

"Alright, This place is called battle ship island, it use to be a mobile research center. They were trying to make a draw system like our own, they even studied GF's here. Well they screwed up and they ended up having to abandon this place, wonder why they never came back for it………"

It wasn't a comforting thought, ominous really.

Across the old bridge they found a large structure behind the door, the room in interview was made of buckled gray stone with swirls carved inside in to a now incomplete pattern. A large metal capsule with glass walls in the center of the room, radiating an odd blue light brightly. Too bright to look in to directly, though that didn't deter Zell from trying to peer inside. "Hey there's something in there."

"What do you think it is?" Seiphie looked closer, walking toward the light... When she moved something clicked in Zell's head, he quickly stopped her with a swift hand on her shoulder. "What?"

"Hold on a minute."

'Zell, what's wrong?'

(I don't know...) He didn't know, all he knew was (Something is off here.)

**Turn back, the blue light leads to death. **

He heard a deep voice speaking in his head, one that wasn't Carbuncle. (What was that?)

'I don't know, Do you think we should keep going?' Carbuncle seemed a little unnerved by it.

(Sure). Zell looked at the blue light again, It grew bright for about 4 seconds then dulled down into a dim one, allowing him to faintly see a distorted figure inside. Zell didn't know what it meant, it may have been nothing but still and idea was an idea, it couldn't hurt. "Let me go first." Zell volunteered.

Squall wasn't sure why Zell wanted to do this, but it couldn't hurt. "Go ahead."

Zell waited for the light to dim again, then ran as fast as he could, charging forward but only making it a few feet before the light grew bright again and he froze, stopping on one foot just an inch from being over balance. "Whoa!"

It dimmed again in a flash and grew bright again, but Zell didn't move (Close.)

"Zell? What are you doing?" Seiphie yelled, noticing the boy looked like an idiot standing there on one foot.

"Trust me! I know what I'm doing." The light dimmed down and Zell ran for it.

**So.. You've You have perceived the resonance……… **

Zell heard the voice again, creepy. (Well, your doing something right, just keep it up, your almost there!) Carbuncle encouraged.

Zell could see it, the capsule was right in front of him. 'Wait, wait!... Now!" He bolted forward again, placing his extended hand on the capsule mainly to stop himself.

The light's pulse stopped, then settled in a dim glowing.

**You wish to challenge me………**

"It's not our will to fight." Zell looked around, trying to figure out the direction of the voice, and seeing that he had stopped Squall and Seiphie ran over to join him.

"What was that?" Seiphie lifted her weapon, holding her nu-chucks with both hands, apparently all of them heard the voice this time. The three of them watched as the Capsule grew brighter until the light was blinding...

With a loud roar the light cleared, revealing a Ruby Dragon before them.

"I guess we'll be finding out soon." Squall waited no time and attacked, slashing it across the neck and pulling the trigger of the gunblade. The dragon smashed his head against Squall's stomach, sending him sliding backwards to the ground. Zell crept up to it while it was busy with Squall, giving it punch to it's jaw and jab to the face before he had to draw back to a safe distance, or tried to anyway.

It opened it's mouth wide and exhaled with a growl, covering Zell in flames with enough power to send him shooting back, completely engulfed, almost hitting Seiphie.

"Hey!" Seiphie jumped angrily, casting Blizzara on the beast. It's whole body froze in an of itself imprint of ice, a frozen casing. Then pillars of the cold something rose from the ground in daggers, smashing the dragon apart.

**Begging for Mercy?**

"Never!" Zell yelled, getting ready again instinctively. As expected, the light from the capsule grew to a blindingly bright one, letting through another dragon.

Seiphie glanced over at Squall quickly before turning back to the dragon. "We can handle this, Right?"

"Yes, we can." Squall nodded, starting off first again with an initiative, this time taking a direct approach, plunging his sword right in it's neck. It roared, lifting it's body up from the ground and gashing Squall with it's claws. He was thrown to the ground in a spray of his own blood, trying to roll away but the dragon turned around swiftly, swinging it's tail and slamming it into everyone.

"Ow.." With a slight shake of her head, Seiphie jumped to her feet, immediately casting a haste spell on herself. Then she cast berserk on the dragon, which was more of a tactical move when it could have normally been a very foolish one.

In a rage of fury it opened it's mouth wide with a deep inhale, then spitting out a spray of flames toward the three, some of it dripping out the wound Squall had created in it's neck. It still managed to hit everyone, spraying Seiphie, then Zell then Squall in one sweep. (Damn...That's hot.) Zell winced from the heat, feeling his skin still burning even after the attack passed.

"Squall! Go for the neck!" Zell shouted, quickly closing the small gap between himself and the dragon, jumping in to the air. Squall pulled the gun blade back coming from the other side. The dragon opened it's mouth wide about to use it's flame breath though unclear on which target it would go for first... "NOW!" Zell kicked it in the side of the head just ask Squall brought his sword above his head and slashed the sensitive spot. With both of them at point blank range, it used it's fire breath, but in a twist it's neck exploded.

**Damned imbeciles! Why do you wish to fight?**

All of them stood silently, starring at the capsule, the direction of the voice was clear now...

Squall's first impulse was to say 'None of your Business' to whoever this was. Seiphie thought about saying 'For the sake of protecting something.'.

Zell was the only one who really thought about the question, in a unsure almost timid voice he said "It's………our nature, I guess there is no real reason………"

**Hmm, very interesting………**

The lights flared again, this time they were inside the capsule...

The blue lights were glowing words, symbols in an unknown language. They radiated, flashing between light and dark in a rhythm. A large figure was floating just a few above them, he was a dragon, with blue skin, almost human in shape, it's torso and under his tail was silver and he had 2 large wings that he was just staying in the air with light beats of them. They were a deep red on the in side and blue on the other, with large scythes on the tip of the wing span.

All three of them stared determined up at him, he looked back with surreally hypnotic green eyes that studied each one of the humans.

"The Great GF, Bahamut………" Squall stood almost breathlessly, watching the legendary GF that lay before them.

"GF………I." Bahamut seemed confused that he was referred to as a GF, how these humans looked up at him with fearing, with mild respect that came when witnessing something with great power. Why did they look at him like that? With that small bit of fear that came intern with anticipation when about to embark on a hard fight, fear? " …….But it's human's that I fear."

He waited apprehensively when though showing no signs of his current mental state, watching them raise their weapons. Bahamut didn't seem to want to fight but he forced himself, he hadn't seen humans in a long time.

The large dragon swooped down, punching Squall in the chest with a hard impact, sending him flying backwards into the walls surrounding them with an imprint left behind. 'He's strong.' Squall grunted as he pushed himself off of the wall and made his way up a few steps to realign himself with his team mates.

He could feel Ifrit stirring uneasily, 'What did you expect?' Squall waited instead of attacking as he would have, casting triple on Seiphie. She in turn cast Pain three times, but the only effect that seem to work was the blind affliction.

Bahamut stiffened his wings and dropped back down attempting to attack Zell with his claws, he came short, missed completely though coming close enough to throw wind in his face. Zell came after the retreating dragon, running up his torso, flipping off, kicking him in the face and landing gracefully on his feet. Squall came right after, lifting his sword above his head with a light jump, trying to slash him but Bahamut moved back by some manner of instinct or senses to tip him off. Instead Bahamut began flapping his wings, creating strong winds that swirled around the three them. Some how the dragon was ordaining the winds blindly, creating a tornado that drew them up in it's current, tearing at them with strong airstreams and dropping them to the ground at the current's end.

Squall withdrew back to where he was before, summoning Ifrit. Seiphie spread her nu-chucks out before her with both hands, casting Tornado, and causing an almost equally strong wind to swirl around Bahamut, the hard winds sliced at him like blades and pulled at him all sides. While under the effects of Triple she cast another while the first was still going, then cast a third.

Fierce winds came at him from all sides, three tornados convening to became one fierce air torrent, transforming into a Hurricane spell. Bahamut fought to stay in place, flying against the rapidly shifting wings, but Spell eventually over came him , tossing him around and sending him to in a tail spin to the ground. But with an unusual quickness he got back in the air with a single movement of his wings, attempting to attack Seiphie, or at lest in the direction he sensed the spell had come from but missing again because of the blind spell. "Damnit."

The three of them faded as Ifrit shot up from the ground going higher then Bahamut, and for a split second eye contact was met but passed quickly. The burning Meteor followed, coming up under Ifrit's feet. Both GF's locked eyes for the second time with a more defining look, Bahamut could only sense the presence and look in that direction but he knew their eyes had met from the feeling he was getting. Then Ifrit proceed to arch his body back, striking the burning rock with both fist and smashing in to the dragon. Bahamut was overwhelmed by the intense flames before it even touched him, he quickly closed his wings around his body, the claw like forms on their tips locking together to hold the appendages in place.

When the flames subsided he emerged from beyond his shield, looking the three human's direction with a small sigh. Though they couldn't see any change in Bahamut he had apparently done something since the ground began to shake, then everything started to shake, it seemed as if the whole earth was shaking around them. Surreal... "What's happening?" Seiphie yelled, stumbling around disorientedly.

"I don't know." Squall tried to keep his balance, in the end he could only plunge his sword in the ground and hope that he could. He had know idea what was about to happen.

Zell figured it out though, he didn't know what was coming exactly but he knew it would be big, and was that a Limit break energy he saw? "Oh man."

Bahamut rose up higher in the air, his wings stretched out to full length, he tilted his head back opening his mouth wide, pulling in energy visibly in white streaks. Zell, highly anxious, charged at the dragon with the hopes of halting the attack, that anxiousness seemed to cause him to gain a strong boost, bending his knees and leaping in to the air. He rose higher then normal bounds allowed, raising up to Bahamut's level and still rising.

Time seemed to slow for both of Zell, something similar to ones life passing before their eyes before death, Oh man, was he about to die! Ok, calm down, focus, focus...

Bahamut drew in the last bit of air for energy as Zell arched backwards, his body going in to a back flip. The Dragon fired the charged energy just as Zell kicked him across the face, then was thrown to the ground, pinned by down a powerful Mega-Flare.

The Mega-Flare exploded on to all of them, hitting them with a strong, explosive, oppressive force that threw everyone surrounding backwards engulfed in a burn, electrocuting energy.

Bahamut stared at the humans, all three of them down and out, still able to see sparks of electricity on their unconscious bodies, or even worse... He waited, still watching.

One of them moved.

Zell pulled in his knees, planting his hands on the ground and pushed himself weakly off his stomach. He groaned in pain as he forced himself to stumble to his feet, he was barely alive it seemed. His vision was blurry, his body burned, eyes red and watery, and he had to catch himself as he almost collapsed, needless to say everything hurt. "Oh god what hit me..."

Call it luck, or will, maybe even a little bit of heart, and possibly intervention by Carbuncle.

Zell reached around in his pockets, looking for something.

Bahamut watched the human, the only one still standing and some how willing to fight even in this condition. The blindness had warn off and he could see clearly now, one good attack could finish Zell off right now, the human had to know that. So what did he think he was doing? "Hmm………You're an Interesting one, brimming with passion."

Zell stopped shifting, looking up at the dragon, starring with him eye to eye while continued to look around for something. He pull something out, a mega-phoenix, and tossed it in the air, not taking his eyes away for a second. For once he didn't have anything to say in return, he really couldn't think of anything. Maybe he was still shaken from the last attack.

Bahamut landed on the ground, walking slowly toward a tensed Zell who immediately got into a fight stance. Squall and Seiphie watched them from the ground just barely awaking, Seiphie got on to her knees casting a cure spell on them one by one. A lot more cumbersome now that triple was no longer in effect. Seiphie and Squall knew Zell and Bahamut were saying something to each other, but they just couldn't hear what. Maybe they were still fighting... yeah, that must have been it...

! - ! - !

The blue lights from the strange letters drifting around them with no bounds grew bright again, taking them out of the capsule just as they had entered. When they emerged from the blue light the capsule was gone, leaving a large hole in it's place. Soft words came to Zell from the newly junctioned Bahamut, Bahamut...had given up? (A new path awaits…)

Maybe it was because he didn't believe he could win, or he just didn't want to fight...Why did he do it?

! - ! - !

"So, do you think we should keep going?" Seiphie starred down the hole, knelt down next it, seeing it lead to another floor underground.

"Maybe later." Squall turned and walked away, heading for the Garden, Seiphie followed. They didn't have time for this, they were already who knew how far off course.

After a quick look Zell ran after them.

! - ! - !

!- ! - !

Soon after they arrived home Carbuncle un-junctioned himself, quickly falling back to sleep in Zell's room. He must have been tired, he hadn't said anything the whole time.

Zell headed back to the infirmary with Squall who retook his seat next to the still sleeping Rinoa, Zell went to check on Nida in the next room.

"What are you doing here?" Nida was already awake, his shirt hanging open and an IV in his wrist, along with a few electrodes attached to a machine monitoring his heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, things of that nature.

"I came to check on you, How are you doing." Zell pulled up a chair next to the bed and sat down, looking at Nida intently.

"I'm fine." Nida sat down on the edge of the bed, his hands dropped in his lap and his head downcast. "Everyone's just making a big deal about this whole thing."

"I don't know." Zell's voice elevated in an unsure tone "Sounded pretty serious to me."

Nida lifted his head and smiled. "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger right?"

"Yeah, I guess. Still a heart attack is pretty serious."

"I know...still It's all in how you look at it." Nida laid back horizontally over the bed, his head drifting just over the other side and his hands laid across his stomach. He stared blankly at the ceiling, his expression shifting into one of quiet contemplation that was so like him, if there ever was an expression that described Nida, that was it. "I guess I'll just have to take it easy for a while. Dr. Kadowaki made it sound like a big deal, I'll just have to relax more often."

Zell leaned back in his chair, lifting the front to legs off the ground to balance himself. "How the hell do you have a heart attack, your my age."

"I'm not sure, I mean I didn't do any thing that stressful." Nida blinked questingly, shifting his arm to adjust the IV cord streaming a liquid into his veins "I know it's not my diet." No, that couldn't have been it, Nida was always conscious of what he ate, he was heather then just about...everyone. "Maybe I need an outside option." Nida sighed "To bad about Raijin, he could have gave me a suggestion."

Raijin? (Oh yeah, Nida did help him study a lot, and Raijin always helped him train..' "Hmm...What do you think it could be?" Zell asked.

Nida tilted his eyes from the white ceiling tiles and florescent lights to the golden sunlight streaming through the half open shades covering the window. 'Are we still here?' Nida thought 'What did I crash in to...Oh man I crashed into something! Oh man, how much damage...calm down.' "It might be something genetic."

"Genetic? Do you know your parents?" Zell inquired.

Nida shook his head "Unfortunately no, I don't even know where to start looking. It's a lost cause, I'll just have to take it easy."

Nida sat up abruptly, disconnecting the IV from his arm and removing the electrodes. The boy looked around, then sat up, slowly creeping toward the door. "What are you doing?" Zell let his chair fall back down to the ground, watching Nida.

"Dr. Kadowaki is determined to keep me here, but I have to find that White SeeD ship. Plus, no one else knows how to fly the garden, we can't sit here."

Zell only sighed and shrugged, letting him pass.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

'Hey Bahamut, what did you mean when you said that you were afraid of humans before?' Zell sat out side in the secret area of the training area, looking on the water bellow the moving Garden.

(Humans are capable of beautiful dreams and horrible nightmares………) Bahamut told him.

'Uh, I don't know what that means, but………' Zell rubbed his head and changed the subject, it was easier then trying to figure it out. The next thing he wondered about Bahamut was what he was doing there, he had obviously been trapped, and considering what he already knew about the research center... 'What was it they were doing in that place, I mean what kind of stuff could they do on you?'

Bahamut was reluctant on the subject, he had been used in experiments in what those people had called the 'Manual Draw'. Surely Bahamut thought he would die there, since he seemed to have been their main lab rat for all those years. (I'm not exactly sure what purpose of experiments were.)

Zell tilted his head over the railing to peer closer at the sea of blue. The Garden seemed to be coming into a rocky terrain, they were only a short distance away from rocky canyons and islands. He assumed Nida had gotten them back on course. 'Did they hurt?'

(What?)

'Did the experiments.' Zell told him. "Did they did hurt?'

(To a curtain degree yes.)

'Well why did you let them do it on you?' Zell couldn't see why anyone would willingly put themselves through that.

(I was forced.) Yes he had been forced, he didn't ask to be experimented on.

'Why didn't you just leave then?'

(I couldn't, I was trapped. And also...I wanted to study them, see what they were like………) Sure he wanted to study them, but he wanted to escape more, which he couldn't do.

Study huh? He must have gotten some thing out of them. 'Well, what were they like?'

(They were………Cold………detached………it was eerie. They didn't seem to sleep much, some not at all, or eat much, just work, constantly.)

'Sounds kinda boring.'

That was one way to describe it, Bahamut agreed (Hn………)

From the sound of Bahamut's voice Zell could tell it had been pretty bad, was it worth it? 'Well did you find out what you wanted to know?'

(No………)

Zell leaned his back against the railing, propping his elbows on top of the edge, staring into the training center from the door 'What was it you wanted to know, maybe I can help.'

Bahamut thought about it, obviously he had been for a long time, long before he met Zell. (I don't really know.Humans are fascinating, I want to know everything I can about them and the world they've created.)

'I _am_ a human you know.'

(Oh sorry…)

'I get the feeling that you don't like people very much.'

(How can you tell?)

Zell didn't say anything for a moment, creating an awkward silence on Bahamut end, that was, unil; Zell laughed at the unexpected response. 'You didn't sound as interested as you did before when we were fighting.'

(Observant.) Bahamut peered around through Zell's eyes, studying the outside of the Garden, burning the structure into his memory. (I never met a human like you.)

'Yeah, I get that a lot.' Which hadn't really been a complement at the time Zell had been told that. 'Just……not the human part.So what did you do before the whole experiment thing?' Zell was tempted to ask how Bahamut had ended up being experimented on in the first place but since he didn't seem to want to talk discuss the topic in general, Zell decided not to.

(Hmm………nothing of real importance.)

Zell only shrugged and accepted the answer, he really didn't want to push the GF to answer on account of his own curiosity 'If you say so.'

(Why do you care about the past so much?)

Zell mused on of how Bahamut reminded him of Squall a little bit, a very little bit but the personality resemblance was still there 'Well why wouldn't I? Seriously, we're partners now, why not?'

Bahamut obviously didn't see it that way, not from what he'd seen from past humans. For humans GFs were just tools, that's what he had been told. Bahamut would allow himself to be used to a certain extent, if that meant he got a chance to study humans but partners? (Partners? since when are Guardian Forces)

Zell shook his head. 'You can't be serious, What have they been telling you!'

(………)

'You've been in that place to way to long. How long were you in there?'

(Counting when I first entered, 20 years.)

'20 years! How old are you?'

(2123.)

Zell found it amazing that after all those years Bahamut could remember his exact age, he found it amazing that Bahamut had lived so long, he would have never been able to tell. 'Oh, that's a long time...' He was getting of subject. 'Well whatever, a GF is not just a weapon to be used in battle.'

(What is it for then, I've never done anything like this before.)

'So I'm the first person you've junctioned with?'

(Yes.)

! - ! -!

"Hey Carbuncle? You sleeping?" Zell slowly cracked opened the door to his room, letting a small beam of light into the dark room. The small stream of light landed on the small GF that was still curled sleeping on the bed, awaken by the mixture of light and the sound of Zell's voice.

"I was." He slowly shook his head, yawning and forcing himself to uncurl and stretch himself out on top of the soft covers.

Zell let the door open completely and walked inside, sitting down next to Carbuncle who was laying lazily on his back and his legs in the air "Oh, sorry."

"I was sleeping to much anyway." Carbuncle admitted, "So where are we going?"

"I have no idea, I know we're somewhere around Centra. Nida said he'd call if he found the" Zell was cut off my the intercom suddenly flaring to life.

_Could Squall please come to the bridge._


	10. Chapter 9: Things to do while stuck on C...

Chapter 9: Things to do while stuck on Centra.

Squall choice to go the white SeeD Ship by himself, while everyone else took a look around the Centra region to pass time.

Zell and Irvine went to the nearest place, the Centra ruins.

! - ! - ! - !

"Whoa, this place looks like a tornado hit." Irvine looked around at what used to be the front gate, surveying the scattered stones and ruined remains of what used to be a city. Well what wasn't incinerated or smashed in to a thousand pieces, as a matter of fact the only thing that remained was the castle.

A deep voice surrounded them entry.

'If thy seek my power, come to my throne.'

"That never gets old." Irvine looked around for the source of the voice, finding nothing but a stray Tonberry walking toward them.

(Anyone know what that was?) Zell asked,

'I don't know.' Carbuncle said.

'It was Odin.' Bahamut was the only one who knew anything about it.

(Odin? What is he talking about?)

'He wants to challenge us.'

"You think we should fight him?" Zell turned to Irvine, waiting for an answer before proceeding forward.

Irvine didn't see why not, it might be interesting. "Why not, how tough can he be?" He shrugged, looking down at the small Tonberry that was dangerously close with a knife in it's hand and a lantern in the other.

! - ! - !

Seiphie and Quistis headed for a small desert island (at Seiphie's request) called Cactuar island. Though it was still unsure that there were any Cactuar here among the desert. They hadn't found any yet.

"Hey! I was promised Cactuar! Where are they!" Seiphie shouted as loud as she could, waiting around for the empty response that followed.

"Hey, calm down. I'm sure well see a few soon, I don't know why you want to any." Quistis rubbed her head, she felt a headache coming on. So this is how Squall felt, interesting.

"Look! There's one!" Seiphie saw one just over the hill, it was close! So close! "Let's go!" She shouted, running up the sandy hill as fast as her legs would carry her, which was pretty fast. Quistis struggled to keep up, but the speed differences between them became very apparent when she realized that she was only half way up and Seiphie had already made it to the top of the sand dune.

"Whoa!" Seiphie shouted, sliding to a stop and jumping up and down fearlessly, anxious to continue on.

Quistis carried her self up the rest of the way, wanting to see what the excitement had been about , and when she saw it she and marveled at the site. "Is that even………possible?"

There it was, a huge Cactuar, at lest 200x it's normal size. The overly large Cactuar dug in to the ground, disappearing under a cloud of sand. The tunnels it dug could be seen from the surface, telling them where it was heading next. "Quick! After him!" Seiphie called out eagerly, pointing in the direction of the digging Cactuar.

"You can't be serious!" Quistis didn't seem so sure they wanted to find it, a giant Cactuar? An unnecessary risk "If you really want to see one up close then we can go find a regular sized one..." Seiphie wasn't even listening, the girl in question was already a good distance away from her. "Seiphie!"

! - ! - !

Zell and Irvine began searching the area, with only a 20 minute time limit given by Odin himself, though they didn't know why it was in effect. Just past the front gate a large statue of the sorceress and her knight stood, it was ironic when you think about it.

Just past that, was a rather thin stairway leading up to a large castle, it didn't look stable and with out support. But they decided to chance it and go up anyway, and they made it just find until they reached a point

Irvine came to a stop, almost enough for Zell to run into him. "Great, there's no way up!" The staircase was broken an disconnected, Irvine looked around for another way up.

'Zell, there's another way up' Carbuncle told him, seeing something he didn't.

(Where?)

'Those stairs, try going up them.'

Zell slipped past Irvine, narrowly avoiding falling while getting in front of him, then carefully climbing 3 more steps the weak passage, it seemed to be a miracle that he got this far out. And the fall from here to the ground seemed like miles.

Zell safely made it to the landing, looking around for another way. He saw nothing... (Alright Carbuncle, where do I go from here?)

'Look to the left'

Zell did so, turning his head to the left enough to see the gap between the landing and the castle court yard that lay past it. He saw nothing...until a new path emerged from nowhere, a stairway and railing colored in rainbows. "Whoa, that was unexpected."

With the new path before them Irvine and Zell proceeded up to the castle, formally the center of the Centra empire. They could see that it had been much larger at one time just by looking at the rubble on the ground and the broken edges of the castle, this place didn't seem safe. Past the two large wooden gates outside lay a circular room with an altar that had a large, squared stone laying in the center.

"What is this?" Irvine inquired, poking the stone questingly... A pattern on to top of it started to glow in a bright white light and the stone started to rise slowly upward, giving Irvine an idea.. "Hey, Elevator." Jumping on top of it before it got too far off the ground, then reaching back to pull Irvine up.

! - ! - !

"We'll never catch it like this!" Quistis stopped, lifting her hand to make it clear that she _wouldn't_ run anymore.

Seiphie stopped, going back a few feet to return to Quistis, pouting. "Come on! We're almost there!" Seiphie pointed to the tunneling Cactuar not to far from them.

"We're going about this all wrong." Quistis sat down on the soft sand, panting heavily, watching two little Cactuars run past them that Seiphie didn't even seem to see.

"What do you mean?"

Quistis took one last deep breath, looking up at the brunet. "That Cactuar is going around in circles, all we have to do wait for it to come back around and we'll catch it."

"Oh, make sense." Seiphie had to agree that it did make more sense then chasing it around.

! - ! - !

A spiraling staircase on the side of weak structure lead to the throne room, but the door was locked.

"This just gets better and better doesn't it." Irvine sighed, tilting his hat downward.

"Ok, there has to be someway to get in. Right?" Zell wasn't sure that they went the right way.

Bahamut again saw something that Zell didn't. 'Look above you'

Zell did as Bahamut told him, looking up, and at first he saw nothing out of the ordinary. But looking closer he saw something was wrong, or just off. "Hmm.." He grabbed on to the ledge laying above the door, making his way up to a stone Gargoyle that rest there.

Irvine looked up questioningly, he didn't get it. "Zell, What are you doing?"

Zell lifted his hand to his chin, tilting his head thoughtfully as he stared at the stone figure. "Look, This thing is missing an eye."

"So."

"These eyes are diamonds, big ones."

Irvine thought on it for a second 'If the eyes are removable, it must be some kind of switch,' "Hey Zell, do you see the other one?"

Zell started to look around the ground for anything.

Irvine, after looking around on his level, caught a flash of something in the corner his eye that he immediately turned toward. 'What was that?' He lifted his hand to his eye, steeping back out of the glare shining on him. In the spot where he was stand, a small ray of light shined diagonally from the left, Irvine traced the ray to the roof, finding the source which was a shiny object was reflecting the light.

"Zell, It's on the roof, in that other statue." Irvine pointed to it, then volunteered to go and get it.

Zell gave him the other jewel, for conformation purposes, and waited behind where he was..

"Is just me Cerberus or do these things make you nervous." The demon made a sound that Irvine recognized as a 'What do you mean' or a 'what are you talking about' type of thing. "This." He indicated a prism railing that appeared when he went near the stairs.

(Odin's power surrounds this place, That is what your seeing.) It was interesting how the GF's voice projected because all three heads talked at the same time.

"Still kinda creepy." Irvine edged along the thin ledge at the end of the stairway, grabbing on to an old ladder that led to the top of the Ruin. "What is Odin anyway?"

(Odin represents death, that is power.)

"How do you know all of this?"

(I'm the one that granted him passage back in to the world of the living.)

Cerberus, guardian of the gates of hell. "Hmm………Make sense. But, can you really do that?" He got no answer for that question, Irvine figured that Cerberus had a past relationship with this Odin guy, he would have to if he did something like that.

After a long accent up a rather weak ladder, he was met by a stone gargoyle with one eye. Irvine slipped in the eye from the previous gargoyle before, hearing a small click. "huh?"

"Huh" Zell looked on as a torch by the edge of a nearby ledge lit up on it's on. The flames rose high, forming into 5 numbers. "What is that?"

Irvine removed both jewels, retreated down the ladder and back to Zell, giving him both diamonds. Zell placed them in to the sockets, which ignited the same torch again, revealing the same numbers, this time unlocking the door.

"Who built this place? I mean something important must be back here if they would make someone go through all of this." Irvine pondered, slowly advanced toward the door.

"Well let's go find out."

They opened the reinforced doors, revealing a red carpet on top of checkered tiled floors leading to a large throne, besides that the room was bare. Odin was waiting for them, his sword waiting by his side.

That sword, that really large sword, it was special, Carbuncle knew that... (Zell, that sword, they say it can cut anything in half. Watch out for it.) Carbuncle warned.

"I will lend my power to those that prove their strength to me. If you are weak, you shall parish."

Odin was tall, wearing thick armor with red eyes and black horns and oddly yellow skin. His horse, named after his sword, joined him in battle. Odin always fought with his horse, no matter how much of an inconvenience it would provide.

With sword in hand a lance on his back, he waited unmoving. Irvine carefully aimed, moving above the armor and hitting him with a head shot. Odin barely flinched. Zell moved quickly in feared retaliation from the sword, kicking off the armored horse and delivering a strong blow to Odin.

Odin only waited, not moving at all, no counter, nothing. "What is he doing?" Zell started to get nervous.

"I don't know, but I don't like it." Irvine loaded some Armor piercing ammo, blasting a whole in the thick armor Odin wore. Zell started to get edge, Odin was obviously messing around with them, the whole time he didn't so much as blink, the only moment made was by his horse breathing.

Zell began to get on edge in his usual over reaction of light panic, (Zell, calm down, I recognize this strategy. How much time is left on the time limit?) Bahamut asked.

'A little over 5 minutes.'

Bahamut knew what Odin was doing, too bad Zell hadn't figured it out. (If you don't prove your strength to him with in that time, He's going use that sword.)

'That shouldn't be to hard. Right?'

Zell signaled Irvine with a small nod, he responded with another nod.

Zell began to summon Bahamut, while Irvine cast haste on himself and Zell just before both of them faded as the large Dragon emerged through the ceiling. Bahamut dropped down, his wings spread wide to catch himself as he opening his mouth and inhaled to charge a visible white energy and firing a series of small rays around Odin. Each one unleashing an explosion to mark the land. In the mist of the explosion, Bahamut drew in more energy and then expelled it in a loud roar, sending down a powerful mega flare.

When the smoke cleared, Odin was still standing strong and unmoved... Irvine summoned Cerberus, who cast triple and Double on the two of them, using that Zell used the double in effect to cast Aura on both of them. Odin wanted strength, this was the best way to do it.

"Ready?" Zell asked, not bothering to look in Irvine's direction.

"Uh-huh." He replied, doing the same.

With limit break raging Zell ran at him, Jumping up and delivering strong kick to the face, it was like hitting a brick wall. Irvine pulled the trigger, firing a Pulse shot that broke threw Odin's armor in large patches and scorch marks. Zell leapt upward again, lifted his heel above his head, bring it down on Odin.

Irvine fired another round in to Odin, leavening behind a ray of excess energy. Zell jumped back, giving a round house kick, running up Odin's body giving a strong kick flip. Irvine fired another shot as Zell was coming down, who did another heel drop on Odin.

Irvine fired another round, while Zell delivered a blow threw the exposed armor of Odin's torso with his left fist, another with his right, and finishing with a powerful uppercut to his chin.

It seemed that nothing was working until Irvine fired his last shot as Zell threw his last punch, by some manner of careful aiming Irvine missed Zell. Odin grimaced in pain, lifting his hand to his chest.

Zell and Irvine looked at each other. "I think we won."

! - ! - !

"You sure that it will come up here?" Seiphie asked, sitting down on the ground and resting her elbow on her leg, laying her head in her hand.

"I'm not sure of anything." Quistis admitted, looking out in to the water from the relatively high ground.

Sure enough less then a minute later a large Cactuar popped out through the ground. But it had it's back turned, unable to see them coming. "Hey! You!" Seiphie jumped to her feet, looking up to at Cactuar that was much larger up close, about 4 stories high.

The green creature turned around, bending down to get a closer look at them as if it had never seen anything like them. "Hey!" Quistis said in a exclamatory manner. "That's a GF!"

When she said that, the Cactuar jumped, a large sweat drop fell down it's head, he'd been found out! Seiphie leaned forward with interest. "Really?"

Knowing it was inevitable, the Cactuar got ready to fight. He turned to the side, standing on one leg, arms lifting and falling in a mechanical motion. Which Seiphie found really funny. "Cool!"

The first thing they found out was it was fast, very fast. Second, it was hard to hit, nearly imposable. After the first few tries, Seiphie became frustrated. "Hey! Sit still!" She yelled, casting a slow spell to stop it from moving so much. It didn't work. Quistis tried a blind spell, nothing worked.

Cactuar stopped moving completely, becoming stiff, and letting his body fall to the ground. When the heavy cactus hit the sands everything under Seiphie and Quistis shot in to the air including the ground, they landing hard. "Aww! You asked for it!" Seiphie cast a Fiargea spell, sending an explosion of fire over it. Quistis cast a double spell on herself.

The Cactus leaned back on his other leg, sliding over to Quistis and stomping down on her. She countered, hitting it in the back with her whip as it retreated back to it's former position.

"OK! How About Lighting!" Seiphie shouted, casting a Thundaga spell causing a strong bolt of lighting to surround Jumbo Cactuar, breaking the ground around it and sending a strong electric current in to the Cactus.

Using Double, Quistis cast Haste on both of them, trying to even the speed up a little.

The Cactus tilted over a little in Quistis direction, flailing his arms wildly. Thin needles started to fly out in a completely unblockable or avoidable rain over her body. She immediately fell to the ground unconscious.

Seiphie worked quickly and use a Phoenix down on her.

The Cactuar tilted towards Seiphie, using 10,000 needles again but this time on her, sending the same torrent of needles that had taken down Quistis before on to her. As expected she was knocked unconscious.

Quistis rushed to use a life spell on her. "Not so cute anymore huh?" Quistis joked, noting how hard this Cactuar was to fight.

"Alright! No more Ms. Nice Seiphie. YOUR GOIN' DOWN!" Seiphie was compelled to roll up her sleeves when she found that she didn't have any, only further premising the golden aura of limit break.

Her mind became boggled, filling with random magic. One spell came through all of it.

"THE END!" She shouted, and everything went black and quiet. Just as quickly as it came, it passed in a blink of an eye.

The Cactuar stopped moving, completely stiff and falling to it's side. "Oh my goodness Seiphie how did you do that?" Quistis ran over to her, looking over the fallen creature in disbelief.

"I don't know." Seiphie smiled "It just happened."

! - ! - !

This ship looked familiar to him, but when Squall realized that he knew it should have, because it was the same one that took Ellone from the Garden. The White SeeD Ship.

When Squall arrived 2 men and a woman in all white suits were waiting for him, anticipating someone because of spotting the obvious back drop of Balamb Garden. So he introduced himself to them "My name is Squall. I'm a SeeD from Balamb Garden. I'd like to speak to your leader."

The man in the middle spoke up. "I'm in charge, state your business. Depending on what you say, we may ask you to leave immediately." He spoke sternly in clear, leaving no room for misinterpretation.

Squall thought about it for a second, asking reluctantly for his request "... I want to see Ellone."

"...?" The man seemed alarmed at this, that someone knew Ellone was here, but how? How could someone find out?

"I pose no threat." Squall said. "Edea told me that you would be here."

The White SeeD Leader looked at him questioningly "Edea...how...?"

"...Edea is no longer under Sorceress Ultimecia's control. She is now our ally." Squall already knew they knew the whole story, and it would have been really helpful if he had met them first. "So there's no reason for you to hide Ellone's whereabouts from us. We want to take Ellone back to protect her from Ultimecia."

The man was silent for a moment, but shook his head "... Thank you for coming... But we have no reason to believe you. Please leave." Just like that he dismissed him, walking away, and leaving the other two people to head for different parts of the ship.

Squall just stood their for a moment, looking around the ship from here.

(What are you going to do now?) Ifrit asked.

He was forgetting something...come on, think! 'Hmm………The letter, I forgot about that, I'd better give it to him.' He had to give it to them.

Ahead of him was an area where the deck was enclosed by an overlaying level was stairway, past that was a cabin along with three doorways. That's when he saw someone familiar, he couldn't believe it, it couldn't be... Zone and Watts.

"Wow! Long time no see, sir!" Watts greeted him, he was always polite.

"Whoa! Look who's here! Squall, how's it goin'?" Zone gave him a small wave as Watts shook his hand, they were happy to see him.

"Can't believe you're here! Everybody doin' good, sir?" Watts asked, adjusting his hat slightly as he spoke, still polite with the same smile.

Zone smirked, taking the liberty to tell his story since Squall clearly wanted to know, he could see it in the look on Squall's face. "After you guys left, the Galbadian buttheads came after us, and we barely escaped to this boat."

"I was sure we were goners, sir!" Watts's tone rose lightly, "Zone went nuts and was thinking about swimming across the sea to escape!"

"Hey, it was a plan." Zone defended, quickly shooting a remark back at Watts "All you were doing was whining like a big baby. 'We're gonna die, we're gonna die!' And look who jumped in first! You, you numbnuts!" Zone pointed out, running his hand threw his blue hair.

Squall rolled his eyes. '...I don't see how these wackos keep surviving.'

After seeing that Squall didn't want to hear them argue, Zone changed the subject "So, how's Rinoa? Where is she?"

Squall was quiet for a second, and Zone's face dropped, he immediately knew something was wrong "...Rinoa fought with us against Edea. For some reason, she went unconscious after the fight. She's resting in the Garden now. I don't know what happened, we couldn't protect her. I'm...I'm sorry." He looked away, his head downcast.

Zone was silent with astonishment, at first he didn't fully get the seriousness of what Squall had said to him. But as it started to sink in, Zone's fist clinched tighter and tighter, to the point his arms were trembling, his eyes narrowed and his loss of words cured. "YOU SON OF A BITCH! What did I say? What did I say, HUH? I told you to take care of her! That nothin' better happen to her! Scumbag! You pathetic lyin' scumbag!" Zone grabbed him by his shirt collar in a grip that cut off all his air supply, abruptly enough to send Squall off balance and falling forward, leaving his only support in Zone's hold on his clothing. Though it didn't seem like it, Zone was pretty strong when he was motivated.

This no doubt caught Squall off guard, he could only stare up at Zone with wide, shaky eyes.

Watts grabbed Zone by the shoulder and pulled him back, holding him as Squall fell on to his knees. "Zone! C'mon! Easy, sir! Easy." He coaxed. "She's not dead, they just dunno what's wrong with her, that's all." He glanced over at Squall. "Ain't that right, sir? Squall would never give up on her. Am I right, sir?" Watts tried to calm him down, gratefully it worked.

After catching his breath enough to speak, Squall tried to explain. "We came here to get Ellone because there's a new evil force after her. If we can get Ellone and Rinoa together, maybe...we can get Rinoa back."

Watts put on a cheery face as usual. "Really? See, Zone! I told you, sir! Rinoa's gonna be fine! She promised she would come back! We all have to free Timber together. Don't worry, sir!"

Zone sighed, taking a deep breath. " ...All right. But I'm gonna say it one more time, If something happens to Rinoa again, I swear…" He gave one last threaten look to Squall, a very threatening look that someone like Zone didn't seem capable of giving, before turning away.

Watts pointed him in to one of the rooms where the White SeeD leader was waiting.

! - ! - !

In the cabin Squall gave the man Edea's letter and he read it over "...This is Matron's writing. She really gave this to you?"

Squall smirked lightly. "You guys call her Matron too, huh?"

The man looked up reminiscently. "Yes." He nodded. "Ever since we were little."

"We were raised by Edea, too. It was difficult to fight against her, but we did. Fortunately, everything turned out well. Edea is no longer evil. She's back to her old self again...the kind Matron we remember."

The white SeeD Leader nodded again with a smile, giving him a salute. "Squall, thank you. We owe you and Balamb Garden much."

Squall mirrored a similar action back. "Even our salute is the same."

"So it says in the letter you're looking for Ellone... ...I'm sorry. Ellone's no longer here." He explained how Ellone was taken by Esthar.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Oh, man…" Nida sighed as Squall told him what happened, leaning against the throttle with light fatigue. "Xenophobic Esthar. That area's terrain is not really suited for flying the Garden."

"Anyway, set a course for Esthar." Squall instructed.

Nida sighed again nodding in agreement, ready for this day to be over so that he could go back to sleep. After he gave the order he headed for the infirmary to check on Rinoa.

! - ! - !

Zell and Irvine returned to the garden, just being picked up by Nida. The first thing Zell did was unjunction Carbuncle, keeping Bahamut with him.

Zell walked in to Dormitory hallway with Carbuncle on his shoulder and Irvine by his side.

"Seiphie!"

The found her with two headphones plugged in to an Mp3 player. The first headphones where on her head, the second set was on Cactuars, with an extra long cord. Both were dancing around in a similar fashion with Quistis looking on.

"Is that a Cactuar………?" Carbuncle jumped off, looking closer.

"You know, this doesn't surprise me." Irvine said, looking on.

"The sad thing is, the Cactuar dances better." Zell laughed, wishing he had a camera.

! - ! - !

Yay! I really like Cactuar, I like them as much as I like Moombas and Chocobos!

! - ! - !


	11. Chapter 9: Part 2

Chapter 9: Part 2

"Seiphie, do you really want to do this, it's like two in the morning." Irvine complained.

"Were going to Ester in the morning, this is my only chance." Seiphie said in a pouting voice.

Zell yawned and folded his arms, he was so cold he could swear he could see his breathe. "Why am I here? Dose this take _three_ people?"

"She said no." Irvine relayed.

Zell's voice raised angrily "So did I!"

Seiphie walked past him, brushing past his shoulder. "Well you should have kept saying no." she told him.

"You stood by my bed and asked like 30 times!"

"I was _going_ to stop at 31."

Irvine quickly interrupted them, he didn't want to stand here and watch them argue, he was losing sleep here. "Can we get this over with!"

Seiphie dragged both of them out of bed because she heard that a GF was somewhere around the Centra ruins. From what source and how reliable it was, was unknown. She also heard it was Tonberry, not just any Tonberry, King Tonberry. Tonberrys were hard enough to beat on their own because their extremely high HP and endurance. It wasn't overly strong, but it did have some special attacks, one in particular that could be potentially deadly. For those reasons a King Tonberry sounded almost impossible.

"Alright, let's go!" Seiphie charged head first in to the ruins, more awake then any normal person at this hour.

"Even at 2 in the morning, still energetic as ever." Irvine ran after her, followed by Zell.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Hey look! There's one!" Seiphie pointed to one walking around the stature of the sorceress's knight in the dark of night by light of lantern.

'This is so annoying.' Zell lifted his arms above his head, stretching out.

(I wasn't sleep anyway.) Carbuncle admitted him.

(………) Bahamut had no comment as always.

When it heard their voice and spotted them nearby it slowly turned and began to walk toward them, knife in one hand, lantern swinging in the other. "You think this one is it?" Seiphie looked over the small monster questioningly.

"Uh, you might not want to get to close Seiphie." Irvine warned, lifting his hand to stop her only to find that she was already out of reach.

Seiphie only threw a smile back, "I can handle my" she jumped back as it took a stab at her with the butcher knife.

"I'm sure you can." Irvine lifted his gun into both of his hands and fired a set of rounds at the small creature, though being stuck and it continued to slowly walked forward. Zell cast a Thundaga spell, the ground the creature cracked and broke in small scraps of dust and debris as a large bolt of lighting streamed down from the sky and electrocuted the little Tonberry. But persistent as ever, the little Tonberry kept walking toward them.

A bright light flashed, unleashing a huge burst of red energy over the Tonberry in an explosion as Seiphie cast a flare spell, managing to knock it over on to it's back. Using its tail to help the little creature rose to it's feet, and after a quick shake of it's head it started waving it's lantern.

Everything darkened, and red skull like figure appeared over Irvine's head. He look up, managing to utter out "Uh oh, this can't be good." Before his body was flushing with pain, enough to drop him to his knees.

"Hey!" Seiphie exclaimed angrily, casting another flare spell. Taking the attack in stride and dusting off it's clothing from the burn debris, it countered, using Everyone's Grudge again. "!" Seiphie flinched, waiting for the pain to come when she spotted the ominous red skull, but she only felt a small pinch. "Hey, that didn't hurt at all."

The little Tonberry finally got to Seiphie with it's slow pace, drawing back it's arm and stabbing her with knife. It was enough to make her stagger back a few steps, clinching the wound. "That hurt.." She groaned, countering with strong smash with her nun-chucks, then she finished it off with a quick summon of Cactuar following after.

The green creature came out of seemingly nowhere, Cactuar jumped in the air behind the group, flailing it's arms and sending a rain of needles on to the wincing Tonberry. The small monster fell back, dropping the lantern this time when it fell. It's body disappeared, but something else took it's place.

A considerably _bigger_ Tonberry, taller then they were. Above it's head a small crown floated and rotated. Yup this fit the description, if this thing didn't nothing would.

"I think this is it." Irvine rubbed his head nervously, It did look rather ominous.

"Yeah, looks like it." Zell dropped his shoulders and let his head fall, he hadn't been expecting _this_, it had to be 10 times more powerful then a regular one. "I looks mad." It was easy to tell that it wasn't happy.

Zell's first thought was to use a Scan spell. 'Whoa, how we supposed to fight this thing?'

Carbuncle obviously thought about his answer. (Hit hard, it can't be that fast………? What do you think Bahamut?) Carbuncle asked.

(I agree.)

"Alright, let's get this over with."

Irvine summoned Cerberus for a quick Triple spell, while Zell summoned Bahamut. Using their junction to boost his power as high has he possibly could as he waited in the sub-dimension. The large dragon appeared, through the clouds, firing a powerful Mega-Flare on to the Tonberry after 5 or so smaller recessive shots.

In retaliation, the heavy King Tonberry started jumping and pounding his tail, sending down a rain of misalliances junk that crashed down on their heads. It was surprisingly painful, very painful. Seiphie had to use a Phoenix down on Irvine, who reached Limit break as soon as he got up.

He opened the chamber, sliding in ammunition in to both barrels by the pairs until it reached it's capacity and he snapped it closed and lifted it with both hands toward his enemy. With a pull of the slide he fired 12 shots of pulse ammo at it with streams of light trailing behind each one, but it was only enough to slow it down. That was never a good sign. The Tonberry king held up the small butcher knife that seemed to gleam, and he rushed at Zell considerably faster then would be expected for something of that size, slashing him across the stomach.

(Zell, are you alright?)

(You ok?) Both of his GF asked at the same time.

'Fine.' Zell nodded with a small wince, scowling at the rip in his shirt. 'This isn't working, we'll be dead before we kill this thing!'

(Try using gravity.) Bahamut suggested.(It's a powerful force, it always seems to work well on Tonberryies)

With the tipple still in effect, Zell took Bahamut's advice and reluctantly cast the first Demi spell. Sending a shockwave oppressive black energy pressing down heavily on the Tonberry King. The second and third waves were enough to halve it's energy. The results could be seen by the next scan spell. 'It works.'

Seiphie and Irvine seeing the results themselves followed his lead, Irvine casting set of three Demis (all of them drawn from Odin this evening). While Seiphie cast Haste on everyone to expedite the process.

Tonberry started to look nervous, swinging it's lantern to using 'Everyone's Grudge' on Zell. An intense pain came over the boy's body, making him fall back and tremble on to the ground, holding his torso with a cry of pain.

"You ok Zell?" Seiphie turned to him, casting a set of three Cureaga spell on him to bring him to near full heath.

"Thanks."

Irvine cast another series of Demi spells, weakening the Tonberry even farther. It knew if it kept fighting at this rate, it was done for.

Another wave of Demi spells from Seiphie hit him, knocking it back to the ground and making his crown fall from it's head. The Tonberry scurried to it's feet with a nervous sweat, looking around frantically and fearfully.

"I'm sorry!" He quickly apologized for his actions, Picking up the crown, and quickly running over to the nearest person (Irvine) and handed it to him as a peace offering. "Here, take this!"

"Uh, thanks?" Irvine looked over the solid gold hypno crown, then down at the Tonberry. Confusing.

"Aww! He is so cute!" Seiphie yelled, knelling down to give the even more nervous Tonberry giving him a big hug.

"You can't be serious! He was just kicking our asses, now your hugging him!" Zell yelled, notably getting in more attacks then mentioned.

"He's still cute." Seiphie looked back at Irvine with an interesting look "And he's sorry _Ok_." The Tonberry nodded hastily in agreement, not wanting to end up the other Tonberry before him.

"Well, we did beat up the rest of his friends, so I guess that make's it even." Irvine said with a shrug, this was so confusing.

"He still has the knife in his hand." Zell warned untrustingly, Tonberry quickly dropped it.

"Forget it! Let's just go, this place is starting to creep me out." Seiphie picked up Tonberry and carried him back with them under her arm, and it didn't seem to mind.

Zell followed with another deep sigh.

Needless to say, Tonberry joined them.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Zell closed the door to his dark room only illumined by faint strands of moon light through close blinds, carrying the unjunction Carbuncle sleeping in his arms. Carbuncle woke up before he realized it, jumping out of his arms and walking to a nearby chair sitting beneath Zell's desk and finished sleeping there.

' I guess he's really sleepy...' Zell retreated back to his bed, laying horizontally across the covers with enough height for his feet not to leave the ground. His eyes inanely drifted to the blinds outlined in moon light, that silver moonlight reminded him of Bahamut. 'Hey Bahamut? Why don't you come out once in awhile?' Zell asked unexpectedly. 'Come on...'

Hmm...(………) Bahamut slowly appeared in his room as if out of the sub-dimension, luckily in a smaller size then normal, that was about 6 inches taller then Zell.

Zell sat up, his hands resting in his lap and his head tilted up at Bahamut. "You must be really tired, I don't think you got any sleep."

"I'm fine." Bahamut said.

Zell pulled off his shirt, tossing it carelessly aside to the floor in a messy Zell like manner. "Hey, remember when you told me 'Human's are capable of beautiful dreams and horrible nightmares'?"

Bahamut nodded "Yes."

"I been thinking on that a lot lately." The boy admitted, bending enough to pull off his shoes. "I still don't know what you meant."

"………Humans have built things capable of saving this world, and things that could destroy it. They have cultivated amazing things and help each other, but also fight, war and kill each other. I want to know why?"

Zell laughed lightly, removing his gloves which were the only thing he set aside carefully. "You're the humanist thing that's not a human I've ever seen." Zell pulled off his shorts, kicking them off, then laying back on his bed again in nothing but his boxers.

"What do you mean?" Bahamut asked.

"Think about it, you may not look like one, but you think the same way. There are a whole bunch of people in the world trying figure out the same stuff, you could be a psychologist."

Psychologist? "What's that?" Bahamut asked.

Zell admired the questingly look on Bahamut face, it was always funny to watch the dragon try to figure out things. "A Person that study's people."

"Ironic huh?" Again Zell laughed.

Bahamut's face contorted in even more confusion. "What's so funny?" He asked, almost angry.

Zell couldn't help but laugh. "You."

Zell pushed himself off the bead, walking behind the dragon and pushing him forward. "Your like a statue, loosen up."

Bahamut couldn't help but admire his initiative, he never met a human like this before, especially one that treated him like this. "………"

"Well I like you, and I'm going to find someway to get you to relax." Zell promised, he stood Bahamut and looked up to him. "Do you like me?"

"What?" "

You know, as somebody you can Junction with?" Zell asked, "Because your always so uncomfortable around me."

"Yes…and I'm not uncomfortable…" This time Bahamut asked a question. "What was it like before I met you? What was you past like."

Zell seemed happy he asked, Bahamut was asking him things. "Hey, your finally relaxing." Zell smiled "Well anyway, I don't remember much, 'cuse of junctioning and all."

Junction did cause memory loss, Bahamut didn't like that prospect. "Hmm……… I'm going to find something different."

"What do you mean?"

"To junction, what's the point of having a partner if they can't remember you."

"Hey, you called me partner." Zell gave him an unexpected hug. "You really do like me." He said in a teasing manner.

"Well,yes."

"Don't worry about that, I could never forget you, no matter what."

"I never met anybody like you, your different." Bahamut glanced over to the window. "Everyone else just wanted to fight me."

"Did they win?"

"No."

"You are so cool." Zell still held on to the dragon, but the boy opened his eyes and the happy expression faded.

"I got a bad feeling about all of this, the sorceress and all. I don't have any clue about what's going on, I mean a sorceress from the future. How can we stop that? What's to keep her from manipulating anybody, even GFs."

Bahamut began thinking, searching for words to comfort him. He couldn't find any, what could he say? What could he do?

Zell felt two strong arms wrap around him, knowing Bahamut sensed his current apprehensiveness and he wasn't just feeling a normal nervousness that came when undertaking an endeavor this large. "I'm alright." He said. "I just wanna stay like this………"

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Hey Zell wake up!" Carbuncle jumped on to Zell's chest in his usual manner, shouting at him to wake up as he always did when he wanted Zell to wake up.

After a few moments of this and a few head butts from Carbuncle, Zell finally opened his eyes to the dimly lit room only scarcely illuminated by the green glow of his digital alarm clock and the impression of sunlight against the closed blinds. He was suddenly flooded with a blinding light when Carbuncle open the blinds by pulling the draw string with mouth, Damn sunlight. Well actually the light shining in his room itself was pretty dim, it just seemed bright for the moment "Awwwww..." He found that he was still in Bahamut's arms with the cover wrapped around him. It had only been a few hours, the sun wasn't even up. Damn Seiphie, keeping him awake at all hours of the night. "What?"

Carbuncle climbed on to Zell's chest again, jumping once to rouse the sleeping dragon he was laying on top of. "Time to go, Remember, Edea wants an escort."

Zell blinked, looking up at him with a clueless expression.

"To Esthar."

"Oh………Yeah that."


	12. Chapter 10: Teach me!

Chapter 10: Teach me!

"It's a bit far, but we'll make it." Squall carried Rinoa on his back across the only entrance to Esthar, the abandoned railroads bridging adjacent to FH. As Squall said, it was a long walk, but at least he had plenty of time to think. He didn't know if that was a good thing yet, things always seemed worse when he thought about them.

Squall stared ahead, looking at the endless extent of a bridge. '...It's pretty far...Didn't think it would be this far…What am I doing...?'

(What do you mean?) Ifrit asked.

'Go to Esthar... Find Ellone... Talk to Ellone…'

(………) He knew Squall was trying to figure this out, trying to put everything in a simple perspective so he wouldn't have to think about it. So Ifrit reassured him he was right that that was all there was to it, even though he knew it wasn't, so that he didn't start to lose nerve. It didn't work though.

'But there's no guarantee that everything will be resolved if I talk to Ellone.'

(Don't worry about it, things will work out.)

'Even so, I'm……….'

(Squall?) Ifrit inquired.

He was getting tired already, and figuring he had made a decent amount of progress he decided a rest was in order. 'I...sure have changed.' He mused, taking a detour from his strait path to walk over to the edge of the bridge and sit down by the water. Carefully laying Rinoa down beside him.

(Yes, maybe you have. So. What dose that mean?)

Squall didn't seem to hear him, or ignored him. Truthfully he didn't want to think about it...

'I wonder what everyone's doing...? They're probably laughing at me. Or maybe they're angry...? What do you think? To tell you the truth... I worry too much about what others think of me.'

(Yes you've changed...) Ifrit admit with light amusement, (But………I like this side of you.)

'I hate that side of me... That's why I didn't want anyone to get to know me.' Again he noticed how he felt able to tell these things to Ifrit and no one else. He would have been annoyed or embarrassed of he tried, which he wouldn't have. 'I wanted to hide that side of myself.'

(Even from me?)

'At first………But now, I…' Squall titled his head upward, drawing one knee up while his other leg hung carelessly over the edge of the railing-less bridge. He stared up at the sky...'…… Need you, You're the only reason I didn't go insane. Everyone just pushed me one way and expected me to know what to do. I hate it.'

Sure Ifrit knew that, but for Squall just to say it like that. (Squall)

'Squall is an unfriendly, introverted guy.' He smirked, staring at the blue sky and white clouds. 'It made it easy for me when people perceived me that way. That's a secret between you and me. Got that?'

Ifrit laughed a little. (Alright.)

Squall picked up Rinoa and continued. 'Thanks Ifrit, but doesn't bother you that'

(Nothing bothers me, as long as you want to do it. I'm fine with)

'Alright.'

"Rinoa………."

Squall started to see something just ahead, as he got closer, it started to come in view. Zell and Quistis was already there waiting for him, they meet were the rail road bridge convulsed in to ice.

"Is the princess still asleep?" Zell leaned forward to look over Rinoa on Squall's back.

"She might wake up with a kiss from the prince." Quistis joked.

"Is that why you came all the way out here? To tell me that?" Squall snorted cynically.

Quistis looked at him for a moment before speaking seriously. "You're going to Esthar, right? We're coming, too."

Zell pointed behind him "We're Edea's escort."

Edea came from the ice cap of Esther's terrain, Looking around at the group that had assembled. "Let us be on our way, Squall. We shall leave as soon as we're ready."

Edea? Why was she going? "What business do you have in Esthar?" Squall asked.

"I must go see Doctor Odine."

"Dr. Odine. You've heard the name, right?" Zell asked, knowing more about it then most people.

Squall thought about it '...Odine?' No, it didn't ring a bell. "Tell me more."

"You know the famous Odine band, don't you?" Zell asked, referring to a golden bangle that sealed a sorceress's powers. "That's all Dr. Odine's work. When it comes to knowledge about the sorceress, he's number one…"

Squall nodded. "...Thanks. So, why do you need to see this doctor?" Squall directed his question toward Edea.

" Sorceress Ultimecia is alive. She is able to take control of my body at any time. If that were to happen... I would once again bring terror. I, too, value my self-being. I want to protect myself. If it

were possible, I would like to rid myself of the sorceress' power. Doctor Odine may know a way. He may be able to save me."

Seiphie and Irvine came down from the snowy path that awaited them. "Yo, they're back, The two of them went to take a look." Zell notified Squall.

"Couldn't find it up north or down south... Let's try going East next!" Seiphie pointed to the east excitedly, where more ice resided only this time the ground grew into an incline.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Squall, Zell and Quistis proceed ahead together, while Irvine, Seiphie and Edea took a different path since the east direction had two paths. After 20 minutes, they reached an area that used to be the Great Salt Lake. It had dried up long ago, leaving only a frozen graveyard and plenty of monsters.

From there it was a short hike up a cliff. At the edge they could see nothing but more ice and snow scattered around by frozen winds.

(Zell!) Carbuncle and Bahamut called at the same time (There's something here.)

Zell immediately stopped, seeing Squall got the same warning Ifrit just ahead. 'What is iWhaaaaa!'

A large monster jumped up from the bottom of the lake on the edge of the cliff with a loud crash and a rumble that almost made them think some of the ice beneath them would break off and send all of them plummeting into the dried lake. Something created out of nothing but the bones at the bottom of the lake. It's head was that of a mammoth, complete with red tusks and everything. From the spinal bones that made up it's back came what seemed to be the remains of wings. This was the fiend Abandon and it was nothing but a skeleton, a large one.

"What the hell is that!" Zell jumped back out of reach of the monster.

(Squall, this is an undead monster. Use holy magic) Ifrit warned, Squall nodded, junctioning Holy to his attack. Making his sword glow with a faint white light.

(Zell, it's undead.) Bahamut told him.

(He's right, use healing magic.) Carbuncle advised.

Zell nodded. "Alright, I'm ready."

The tall monster dropped down on to all fours, charging with more quakes and tried to ram Squall with it's tusks, Squall lifted his sword, stepping in-between the tucks and thrusting the gunblade into it when it came in range. Abandon quickly retreated back from the light.

Quistis clinched her whip, holding the weapon outward with junctioned fire, another weakness to undead. Then she lashed the undead with the burning whip while Zell cast a Cureaga spell. A strong glow and a bright sparkle surrounded the zombie, giving more damage then healing.

Abandon opened it's decaying mouth, blowing out a brown spray of it's musty breath. Easily avoided by everyone, the monster was weaker then it looked.

Squall lowered his sword, holding out his free hand and casting a holy spell. Thick orbs circled the undead monster, pulling in rays of white light from the sky that covered the monster, burning profusely.

With a loud howl, Abandon was flung backwards, seemingly crashing in to some invisible wall before it could go too far and slid down some invisible surface in to the dried up lake below.

Upward to the right, static started to form, like on a screen, but...that was...

(...?) Ifrit looked up questingly, there were a lot of things he hadn't seen, but this just seemed to odd.

"...There's something here." Squall looked at it carefully while an impulsive Zell ran to the edge of the canyon and confidently reached out, his hand bumped against something solid when it shouldn't have. "WHOA! What the hell is that?" When he did the static in on that one particular fight hanging in midair slid open like a panel, a ladder sliding down from the open hole sitting in mid air about them. "It's some kinda hole or tunnel………." Gaining no objections form any one, Zell climbed up, being used as a support tester for everyone else who was reluctant to go first, and peered into the revealed passage way, a vent or tunnel of some sort.

Zell looked back at Squall with a silent question, seeing that this mystery tunnel was facing in the direction of the city they were trying to reach.

Squall apparently thought the same thing. "This looks like the only way." He replied.

With approval Zell climbed into the tunnel, waiting for the other two following before proceeding. It was a short walk to a lift, which then got stuck on the way up. Luckily, Squall found a door that led to another lift, one that took them to the surface.

Panels that blocked the city from sight exposed themselves, revealing the city of Esther to it's surroundings. A vast city full of technology and colorful roads and tall building. It was almost unreal. "THE HELL IS THIS?" Zell shouted, looking around at the town, previously hidden, in astonishment. The view was substantial, making him wonder what it would look like at night.

(It's amazing………..) Bahamut and Ifrit said the same thing at the same time to different people, both looked breathlessly at what was around them.

Squall seemed to be the only one that didn't get distracted. "...Judging from their technology, they must know we're here. It's possible we might encounter some hostility, so stay alert." He warned, but before he could finish all of his thoughts, a weird feeling washed over him, one strange enough to make him stop in the middle of his sentence. 'I...Feel strange, Ifrit...do you feel that?'

Ifrit didn't, which was what made him so worried. (Squall, what's wrong? Is it happening again?)

Squall clinched his chest, his breathing growing into loud pants " ...Aaahh! No...not now!... This...isn't good...…" He collapsed, falling to the hard steel floors.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

When he awoke, Quistis and Zell was standing over him, the others scattered around after having caught up when he had passed out.

(Squall!)

'I'm alright.' Squall didn't need to explain it to Ifrit, Ifrit was there.

Zell on the other hand didn't. "What did you see?"

Squall rubbed his head, a pounding headache was forming and he just knew it would be a bad one already. "He found Ellone…"

Quistis interrupted before Squall could divulge any farther. "Something's coming."

A car approached them from inside the city, easing to a stop off the road and directly in front of them. A man with official's clothing on emerged, looking over the three with his hands on his waist. "Sorceress Edea?" He assumed correctly that she was Edea

Edea nodded affirming, "Yes. WE came here to see Dr. Odine." Edea made it clear that she was here with everyone.

The man took a second look over the suspicious group. " ...Please explain what this is regarding."

"Yes, of course."

Squall interrupted before she could go into detail, getting strait to the point with Rinoa in the balance. "I want to see Ellone. Where is she?"

The man seemed reluctant when he asked. "...Ellone?"

"Squall, calm down. Trust me. Let me handle this." Edea told him teasingly.

He nodded and steeped back while the man, after a few seconds delay, pointed them toward the car he'd traveled on. "Please come with us."

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

They headed to the Presidential Palace where they met the surprisingly odd Dr. Odine. Who observed Rinoa until they could prepare to take them to Ellone. They found out why they needed preparation when Dr. Odine told them to go to the Lunar Gate.

Until then, they had time to look around the city.

Completely tired from getting little, practically no sleep last night, Seiphie, Irvine and Zell checked in to a hotel for rest. All expense paid by Esther of course. There was a lot of thing you could do in a free hotel. To bad they had been too sleepy enjoy it, a good thing for Esther who would have had to pay an excess of room serves.

Carbuncle and Bahamut un-junctioned themselves, Carbuncle looking around the room with a child like excitement. Examining everything to the fullest detail before moving to the next.

"Look at this place!" He scrambled in to the bathroom with that same excitement ... and didn't come back out.

Zell closed the room's door, making sure it was locked so he wouldn't be disturbed. "You alright in there?"

He got a quick "Fine!" in response and decided to leave him alone, in fact when he thought about it Carbuncle was probably finding a place to sleep. Which was odd...But Zell didn't really care.

Zell jumped backwards on to the king sized bed, laying back and resting his hands behind his head. This bed was soft, so soft he thought he'd sink into it, and it was cool against his skin, completely perfect right now. Perfect... "Tired?" Zell waved Bahamut over to the bed, who walked over to the side of the soft bed contently.

The boy pushed himself off the bed with a small jump, landing behind the dragon, a smirk growing across his lips. With a firm hold on his shoulders, Zell pushed him down on to the bed. "Tired?"

"Not really" Bahamut allowed himself to land on his back, noting that the bed was pretty soft...

Zell looked down at the green eyes below him, the smirk growing into a quaint smile. "Thanks"

"For what?"

"The other night." He left his body fall back to the bed just above Bahamut.

"I didn't do anything."

"Yeah, you did a lot." Zell ran his left hand through his hair, a nervous habit he'd developed. "I don't usually act like that. Thinking too much I guess."

Bahamut only nodded. "Hn.. .."

"You didn't have to you know."

"I wanted to."

"Really. Why? I thought you didn't like humans"

"We're partners, remember?"

Zell ginned when he heard his own words being mirrored back, a small sense of pride coming over him when he heard that and knew for sure that Bahamut had finally started to like him. Not that he didn't already know that since a junction did go both ways and Bahamut didn't exactly know how to hide things from Zell mentally yet.

Zell sat up and looked down at Bahamut, who looked back at him casually, a calmness Zell had never seen before on him. Again the boy pushed off the soft support, noticing Carbuncle was asleep from the lack of sound, and walking down to the end of the bed.

"Huh?"

He jumped on the blue dragon, kissing him abruptly before he had time to question. Bahamut only lay their with his mouth open and his eyes looking up curiously, it was unfamiliar to him, but he liked It.

"What was that?" The dragon looked confused, something completely rare.

"You seriously don't know?" When Bahamut shook his head Zell realized that no Bahamut _hadn't _seen this coming, so what was that he was reading out of their junction? Normally he would have felt like an idiot, if not for the fact that even Bahamut didn't know what he wanted. Too many mixed signals! "A kiss." Zell explained

"Why?"

"I had to see something." Zell shifted his weight slightly, pressing his hands on to the bed above Bahamut's shoulders to hold himself up while he leaned forward. A bright smile appeared on his face. "Did you like it?"

Bahamut nodded. "Yes."

"You know, something like that is generally a sign that someone likes you."

Bahamut realized that half way in, but of course he knew that from all the time he'd been junctioned to the boy alone, it was easy to read.

Zell only laughed and kissed him again, slipping his tongue past the docile mouth. Filling the strong urge to become active Bahamut began mimicking the boy's actions, his green eyes drifting closed contentedly.

...Bahamut paused, pushing Zell back enough to break the kiss. The nagging feeling that something came next blaring in his mind. "Zell have you ever"

"Yes."

He felt the Bahamut's erection coming from it's sheath, pressing against him. "Can you... teach me?" Bahamut was reluctant to ask anyone to teach him something, but it was either that or go on instincts. He barely trusted them anymore since his instinct was more to inquire then to actually do an action.

Zell flashed a grin, giving Bahamut another quick kiss before climbing off. "Yeah." Zell pulled shirt over his head and tossed it aside, his hands then slipping into the waist band of his shorts and pulling them down along with his boxer's beneath them letting his own erection free, kicking the clothing aside next to his shirt when he was finished. "I've been waiting for you to ask me that forever."

Bahamut only lay anticipatingly, his tail sliding across the side of the bed unable to be still.

"Ready?"

Bahamut nodded, watching as Zell take hold of his waist and pull him down enough so that his legs were hanging over the side of the bed. Then the boy lifted his legs on to his shoulder though Bahamut didn't ask any questions as to why. Zell knelt down, lowering his mouth to Bahamut's entrance, running his tongue along the outer edges of the small ring muscles.

Bahamut shifted at the new feeling, it was far from unpleasant, just... new. He managed to hold himself still, but he couldn't keep his tail from shifting a little.

'He likes it.' Zell lifted his head, feeling the tip of the blue tail lightly brushing against his leg "Still sure about this?" He asked, standing to his feet with Bahamut's legs still on his shoulder.

"I've never been more sure." Bahamut said, still watching Zell curiously.

He leaned a little into the dragon beneath him, enough to hold his cock in place without entering him.

He reaching up and placed both hands under Bahamut's arms, on his sides, and slowly, slowly, Zell pulled his hands down over Bahamut's sides enjoying the short, quick breathes he was swallowing, before his hands found purchase at Bahamut's waist. In one quick plunge, he pulled Bahamut back as his hips thrust forward. The silver lined tail jump to life with a small flinch from Bahamut, slipping between the boys legs.

Bahamut gasped as he felt his body being penetrated fully for the first time, Zell's breath left him in one long grown as he adjusted to the feel of the body around him. It so tight that it was incredible. "Are you okay?" he thought to ask after another moment.

Bahamut nodded. "Y-yes. ."

Cautiously, he moved, as if teasing out the fit. There was a little pull, but mostly Zell's cock slid easy, in and out of the wet entrance.

Zell instinctively reached down for Bahamut's erection, but remembering the dragons flexibility, he had a better idea. "Hey Bahamut." Zell reached forward, slipping behind Bahamut's neck, and slowly pulling Bahamut's head upward toward his cock. It turned out Bahamut was _really_ flexible. "Open you mouth."

"Like this?"

"Exactly."

With a little prompting from Zell, he wrapped his mouth around his cock, instinctively starting to suck. This was too much...Bahamut moaned, his claws digging into the sheets bellow him with a tense expression coming on to his face. "Zell...!"

The his cock started to twitch, Bahamut opened his mouth felling a rush of pleasure as a jet of cum came spilling out. During which he realized it happened much more quickly he would have liked it to have.

Zell watched the body below him clinch, tightening the narrow entrance mid thrust, and when he saw that Bahamut had just came he decided that he himself could wait and pulled back.

"Tired?"

Bahamut shook his head with light breaths, only giving a small. "Thank you." as he wiped his mouth.

"For what?"

"For that."

Zell laid down next to him, resting his hands behind his head, ignoring the erection making it self known

"Bahamut………" That connection they had grew in to a general attraction. They were basically thinking same thing.

"Hn."

He couldn't find the words he needed, so he just wrapped his arms around him, laying his head on Bahamut's chest.


	13. Chapter 11: Drops of Jupiter

Chapter 11: Drops of Jupiter

They ended up renting a car and driving to the Lunar Gate since it was the quickest way. The building was an odd shape, on top of the actual facility were three tubes that where open at the top and extended high above the facility, curving upward like a ramp, the purpose couldn't really be determined from the outside, but they could guess it had something to do with space, hence the name 'Lunar Gate'.

When they made it inside someone was already waiting for them, a man apparently with the staff because of his uniform matching everyone's else. "We've been expecting you, this way, please." he told them, prompting everyone toward one of the rooms behind front desk.

With a sigh and a small wondering of where Rinoa had been taking, Squall was the last to follow, surveying his surroundings while no one else took a second look. "...?" What was that?...It sound like it came from behind him. A small noise that he couldn't quite decipherer prompted him to turn around just as Angelo burst through the doors, running up to him with a notably saddened expression.

_**Now that she's back in the atmosphere  
With drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey, hey  
**_

'Angelo?' Squall knelt down, looking over the canine and rubbing it's head, flashing a light smile. '...It's gonna be ok. I'll take care of Rinoa.' He promised wordlessly, knowing that the dog could find it's way back easily, he stood up, turning back toward the man, "Lead the way, please."

Being the last of the 6 he followed the man and headed in to the next room, leaving Angelo behind.

! - ! - !

"Are you the ones taking off?" The man asked, standing in the small room in front of three tubes, apparently elevators leading to the ones outside.

"Yes." Squall nodded.

"Distance-wise, it's pretty far, but you'll be there in no time. You'll be there by the time you wake up."

"Where are we going?" Squall asked.

_**She acts like summer and walks like rain  
Reminds me that there's time to change, hey, hey**_

"Let me give you a quick explanation about the whole process." The man walked to each of the elevator, opening them as he spoke. "First, we need you to enter the capsule inside this pipe,

here, you'll undergo the 'cold sleep' process. Once this process is complete, your capsule will automatically be loaded into the booster. After that, we launch. You should be there by the time you wake up, leave the rest to the staff once you get there. ...Well, that's about it in a nutshell, I won't say there isn't any risk involved." Risky... it was pretty risky... "What do you want to do?"

He didn't even have to thing "Let's do it." Squall was ready to go through with it, there seemed to be risks involved with everything they did, what was one more?

"Alright then, you'll need to decide who you're taking. The girl in blue has already undergone 'cold sleep' and has been loaded in. There's room for 1 more." The man explained.

Seeing that she was the first person Squall looked at and probably would be the most useful, she had to decline. "... In the meantime, something must be done to suppress my Powers…" Edea told them, knowing that she was staying behind.

She was staying behind...by herself? "But it'd be too dangerous for Matron to be alone!" Quistis realized , and she was right.

Zell proudly steeped up to the responsibility and volunteered, "Then let me be her escort! C'mon Squall, what do you say?"

Squall looked at Zell...was Zell really the type of person he should leave Edea in the hands of? Zell wasn't so bad, he probably wouldn't screw up. "Ok. I leave it in Zell's hands."

"OHHH YEAHHH!" Zell shouted excitedly. "I'll do whatever it takes to watch over you. Don't worry about a thing! Squall, don't worry about us!" Zell seemed anxious, a little to much so.

Maybe he should rethink this...Nah, Zell would do alright. '...Matron is a sorceress. Don't forget that.'

That only meant he had to figure out one more thing. "Ok, let me decide who's going."

_**Since the return from her stay on the moon  
She listens like spring and she talks like June, hey, hey **_

Squall looked around at the group, excluding Zell, there was Quistis, Seiphie, and Irvine remaining to chose from. Thinking about it, Quistis was responsible, she should probably stay and keep Zell out of trouble. With his short temper, he'd probably need someone to do it. And Seiphie... something just didn't seem to fit about taking her, He'd rather take Irvine, he didn't know what would happen up there, and he'd rather put him in danger instead of her. So he chose Irvine.

The man double checked it with Squall, reminding him that he wouldn't have time to change his mind once the process started. "Is this your party?"

"Yeah."

With a nod the man held out his arm and directed Squall and Irvine to the elevator.

It wasn't comforting when as soon as they stepped inside a thick gas started to fill the tube, and a few light's flashed. When a thick liquid started to pour in and rise quickly in the encasement, Irvine really got nervous. But by then the both of them were sleeping.

_**Tell me did you sail across the sun  
Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded**_

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

When Squall woke up again, he found his body was floating through a hole, no longer in the tube from before. He was stiff, and cold and he was in need of a stretch as if he had been sleeping for a longer time then he had actually been. Rinoa was floating next to him, and Irvine was behind him, that was comforting at least.

Squall flinched when, a voice came from an intercom.

_**And that heaven is overrated **_

"Initiating quick-thaw. It's gonna feel a bit itchy."

A red light flashed quickly making his eyes hurt, the next thing he knew his stiffness was gone and he wasn't as dead tired as he felt before. He was itchy though, very, very itchy, as he thought he was resisting the urge to peel his clothing off and scratch 'Ifrit?'

Ifrit sound more child like then Squall had ever heard him, as if he had just seen some thing amazing...(It was an interesting process, I wish you could have seen it... Oh, How are you feeling?)

'I'm alright, a little itchy though.'

(Figures...it looked itchy.)

'What looked itchy?'

(Nevermind, I know something to help that.) Ifrit said with a light warning, making sure Squall was ready before he flushed his skin was a quick heat. As uncomfortable as that had been, Squall had to admit that all of his itchiness was gone.

'Thanks.'

"Ok, done, Lock on to rotation ring unit... Lock engaged. Generating artificial gravity."

Squall's aimless body began to drift to the ground, he landed on his feet, catching Rinoa in his arms.

Irvine stretched out a little. 'You still there?' Irvine started to clear his mind, trying to hear better, all he heard was soft breathing. 'He's asleep?'

_**Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star  
One without a permanent scar  
**_

The door to the steel room opened and a man in white with red hair walked through, sizing up the three with his eyes inquiring their business.

Squall handed him a letter. "Here's a letter of introduction from Esther's ambassador."

The man read it over briskly, then folded it with a general understanding and placed it his pocket, looking over the three for the girl in question. "Wow... What is she, 17, 18... Is she dead?" The man walked over to Rinoa, looking closely.

"Don't touch her." Squall's voice was cold and dead serious to a point where it was almost freighting.

With a clearing of his throat and a few steps back, the main spoke again. "I understand the situation. Let's get her to the med lab and we'll talk there. Please follow me." The Medical examiner said defensively. He introduced himself as Piet.

_**And did you miss me while you were looking at yourself out there **_

He lead them through the Lunar Gate towards a particular room. The walls and floors were a polished Steel so clean that you could see your refection in it, the ceiling and left wall (Window) was made of thick glass, probably bullet proof. It had a great view of space, over looking thousands of sparkling stars.

They eventually came to a round room with a seemingly bed like capsule in the center. Squall laid Rinoa down in it, and it closed around her, covering everything but her head.

"I've talked to my crew." Piet had done that on the way here, reassuring Squall and Irvine. "Everything will be alright. Come, let's go to the control room." Piet waved them over as he walked out of the room, leading the way. The man took one last look back, noticing Rinoa looked so pale, but peaceful.

_**Now that she's back from that soul vacation  
Tracing her way through the constellation, hey, hey  
**_

Walking threw the halls they came to a stairway leading to the second floor with a doorway way just in front, telling them this was it, Piet lead them inside.

It was a room with large windows composing the walls, under the glass panes were streams of machinery, control panels and terminals each with it's own purpose. Looking out from here the view was even better then the one before it. "Geez... What a view, eh, Squall?" Irvine said, looking out in to the horizon of stars.

A woman at the main control panel looked back when she heard the comment "This is no time to be impressed. Look at the monitor there."

Piet took his own look first, then allowed Squall and Irvine to do so while he moved hastily to another one of the panels, this couldn't be good. The screen was a camera view of the moon from here.

"What's goin' on?" Irvine looked at it closely, trying to figure out what was happening... seeing a small button beside the screen that he recognized, Irvine did his best to enhance the picture.

The view zoomed in as much as possible, but as far as they could see was that red and black stuff was forming on the side of the Lunar surface, all of it was moving around as it was living. 'What the hell is this!' Squall peer down into the screen, staring at it nervously. He wasn't sure what it was but he was sure it shouldn't have been there.

"Nasty! The monsters, they're everywhere. This is not good." Irvine's eyes narrowed slightly as he shook his head, just watching made him shutter.

The woman looked back at them, still working diligently. "'The lunar world of monsters.' Didn't you learn that in school? As you can see, the monsters are gathering at one point. History's about to repeat itself. The Lunar Cry is starting."

That's when everything hit Squall, this was a really, really bad thing...and there was nothing they could do about it now.

Piet finally told Squall what he wanted to hear after he deemed he'd stalled long enough. "Ellone, she's upstairs."

! -! - !

_**She checks out Mozart while she does tae-bo  
Reminds me that there's time to grow, hey, hey **_

Ellone could hardly believe it when Squall walked in to the room, it was so surprising just to him come in with out warning, carrying that same expression she remembered him always having. "Squall, I'm so happy to see you again."

Squall rubbed the back of his head and smiled "Me too." He actually sounded happy to see her.

"I'm so sorry." Ellone stood up from the bed she had been sitting on, walking up to him with her head downcast. "I got you involved in so many things...so much hardship."

Squall knew she was referring to the dreams they had randomly phased out into from time to time. "It's alright, I understand. I understand what you were trying to do. Were we of any help?"

Ellone sat down on the bed again, laying her hand in her lap and looked up at him with bright eyes. "Of course! You were my eyes, thanks to you guys, I was able to see how much I was loved. I couldn't change the past but just seeing it was more than enough." Ellone gave a small nod to Irvine, indicating that she was talking to him too. "Thank you so much."

"It's ok." Squall shook his head, lifting his hand discardingly. "I came here because I need your help... You said you can't change the past, right?"

"You can find out things about the past that you never knew. And from what you've learned, you may see some things differently in the present." Ellone spoke with her own personal experinces as she explained it "You're the one that changes, not the past."

"Really? There's no way to change the past?" Squall's voice and his face showed his disappointment, but also his underlying hope, he wouldn't give up that easily, not after coming all they way here. "No, I want to find out myself. Take me to Rinoa's past. I need to see the past through Rinoa. I want to find out what happened to her, and I want to try to warn her…"

_**Now that she's back in the atmosphere  
I'm afraid that she might think of me as plain ol' Jane**_

"...You want to save her, You don't want to lose Rinoa?" Ellone asked. Squall nodded. "Squall, I can't, I don't know Rinoa. I told you I can only send people I know in the present into people I knew in the past."

"I brought Rinoa with me, She's resting in the med lab. Please... come with me."

If that was what Squall wanted...Ellone nodded, and stood to her feet.

! - ! - !

Squall lead her down the hall and down the stairs to the first floor, when just as they reached the bottom step a red light started to flash and an alarm went off. Squall stopped, looking around in confusion. "What's going on?"

The intercom flared to life. "Red Alert! Red Alert! All units report to med lab, stat!" It was Piet, and more importantly Rinoa was in the Med Lab.

"Med lab... Rinoa? I'll check it out!" Squall glanced back over his shoulder, looking back at Ellone "It doesn't look good, Ellone, you'd better go wait in the control room." Ellone move past him, heading in the opposite direction to the control room. "Irvine, keep an eye on Ellone."

Irvine nodded "Okay."

_**Told a story about a man who is too afraid to fly so he never did land **_

Squall ran down the halls, moving as fast as he could to the Lab, but on the way he found just about the whole staff laying knocked out and scattered around outside his detonation. A man came flying through, crashing in to the wall in front of him just as he was about the enter the door, making him step back quickly to evade. Rinoa came through after the men, but Squall could see immediately that something was different about her. Her eyes were wide in a daze, she walked in an almost zombie like manner. And a faded version of herself seemed to tail behind her, spreading in to 3 of them, more faded then the last in a strange distortion. "Rinoa!" He tried to get close to her but he was tossed back in to the wall before he even got in range...

She stumbled in to the control room while a dazed Squall was getting himself together. (You alright?) Ifrit asked.

Squall pushed himself off the ground and immediately ran after her. 'Yeah, fine.' Squall inquired which way Rinoa had went and immediately followed. At a full sprint it was only a few seconds until he was back at the control room, finding everyone was scatted unconscious around the except for Irvine, he was trying to stop her, but she tossed him away with seemingly superhuman strength.

Irvine nearly landed on top of Squall, sliding into the door narrowly beside him. "Squall, Rinoa's gone crazy!" he said frantically as Squall helped him up, but by then it was too late.

"No!" Ellone watched helplessly as Adel's Tomb Level 1 Seal was deactivated by a switch in the control room, she had no choice but to stand aside knowing there was no way to stop her.

Rinoa kept moving, pushing Squall out of the way and in to the wall despite his best attempt to stop her again. Ignoring Squall for the moment, Irvine headed over to the computer screen residing in the main hall. He was pretty sure the sound he was hearing wasn't coming from the ship, and unfortunately he was right. "Hey look! Stuff on the moon's going berserk."

With a small grunt, Squall climbed off of the floor and made his way over to Irvine... "It's overflowing with monsters." Monsters were starting to pile up on each other, so much that it they were starting to actually fall off the moon's surface.

"It's finally starting………" Piet pushed the two of them aside, pounding his fist down on to the screen in frustration knowing he was helpless. All of this had to have some type of connection, or just horrible timing. "The Lunar cry."

"If that's the case, we definitely have to stop her."

Piet pressed a few buttons the keyboard, shifting to the internal cameras. "If she plans to free Adel, she'll have to go out there. The Level 2 Seal is located on Adel's Tomb."

_**Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet  
Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day**_

Squall ran up to the second floor, the only thing that was able to distract him was a crew member looking on out the window in horror. "Look! The Moon!"

Squall paused to take a look, unable t help but draw back in surprise... Monsters begain to flow off of the moon, A mass of them coming down as a visible drop at first, but as more of the creatures began to gather steady stream of them started fall from the moon's surface like a fluid. "Tons of monsters...! I...I believe they're headed for Tears' Point in Esthar..."

Right now that wasn't Squall's concern, he only continued for the locker room just ahead deciding to discard it for the moment.

Ifrit, however, didn't (Esther...But isn't that where...)

Inside the locker room Squall could see Rinoa in a spacesuit, heading out of the airlock for the gate outside. "Rinoa!"

(Squall, look to your left)

Squall followed instructions, spotting another Spacesuit in a room just beside him. He quickly rushed in to the room and put it on, heading to the airlock in the next room.

_**And head back to the Milky Way  
And tell me, did Venus blow your mind**_

The airlock was, basically, a large metal tube leading to space, and the gate on the other side was already open. "Rinoa!"

Squall drifted upward, trying his best to make it to her in the weightless environment. But Rinoa had far to great a lead and already went through, hard steel gate closing behind her, locking Squall out. Silently swearing to himself he had no other choice but to turn around head back in to the control room.

! -! - !

When he finally made it, he found Ellone watching the screen, evident surprise over her face. "Oh gosh! The Lunar Cry is starting! Rinoa is going to be swallowed by the flood of monsters." She was right, recognizing who it was even though her identity was masked by the suit she wore.

"That can't be Rinoa." Irvine leaned forward hopefully, trying to distinguish someone else besides Rinoa...

Piet looked on helplessly, she hated being helpless. "Damnit! The seal's gonna be broken!"

Looking out they could see Rinoa grabbing on to the Adel's seals, pressing some switches and inputting some codes into a panel on the side. Air poured out from sides and Adel started to move, opening her eyes...the seal was broken... All while the Lunar cry was coming closer.

"Rinoa!"

Piet grabbed Squall, tearing him away from the panel, pulling toward the back of the room where a lift resided. "Come on. We have to evacuate! _Now_!"

"Geeez! Rinoa! Isn't there anything we can do?" Irvine asked, still retaining some hope even though things looked...hopeless for here. There was no response.

"Squall, you should be protecting Rinoa, not me. You're the only thing on her mind right now. She's calling you." Ellone told him, her words were able to prompt him to stop struggling and comply with Piet.

"Ellone, take me to Rinoa. Please."

Piet forced Irvine inside "Next! Hurry!"

_**Was it everything you wanted to find  
And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there **_

"I don't know if I can send you... I don't know." Ellone climbing down in to the Escape Pod, Squall following...

The escape pod detached, falling to safety as the Lunar Cry enveloped Adel's Tomb, throwing Rinoa away from the seal...

The inside of the pod was small, almost claustrophobic in nature. Piet, Irvine and Ellone were standing, locked into the walls by heavy restraints. Squall was the only one that wasn't locked in, he was on his knees on the shaky ground staring up desperately at Ellone, all despite Ifrit's pleading for him to get up before he killed himself. "GOD! Rinoa is gonna die! ...I can't take it. Ellone, please... I've never felt this way in my life!" Squall screamed, almost collapsing.

"………….."

"Take me to Rinoa...to her past."

Ellone dropped her head, looking down on him in light defeat. "Ok. It may not work, but we'll try, ok?"

Outside the Lunar Base was caught up the Lunar Cry, swallowed in the hoard of monsters descending toward earth. Luckily the pod was shifted in a different course.

Ellone tried... even though she never met Rinoa... Taking Squall back to the desert prison, when Squall told her he had gone to far back, Ellone went forward a little.

Squall could see Rinoa and Zell Garden.

"Squall's ring? I dunno where he bought it." Zell rubbed the back of his head lightly feeling as if he had forgotten something, in actuality, Zell had bought it for Squall's birthday back in the orphanage, but because of the Junction he couldn't remember it.

"I want the same one. It looks really cool, doesn't it?" Rinoa said excitedly.

"You mean the one with some monster carved on it?"

Rinoa nodded. "YEAH!"

"Alright..." Zell lifted his hand to his chin and titled his head upward in thought. "How 'bout I make you one? I'm pretty good at that kinda stuff."

Rinoa looked at him even more excitement, her eyes lighting up brightly. "Really? Sure, OK!"

"Let's have Squall show us the real thing."

And all at once Rinoa's excitement faded. "...We can't do that."

"Why not?"

Rinoa's hands shifted behind her and she looked away with a light blush."...It's embarrassing." "Say what? Oh…"

"No! It's not what you think!"

! - ! - !

_**Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken  
Your best friend always sticking up for you even when I know you're wrong**_

That wasn't it, but at least Squall understood why Zell asked him for the ring a little better.

Ellone tried again, this time she brought them to the Galbadia Garden auditorium. It was when Rinoa was talking to Seifer, the truth was that Ultimecia had possessed her, transferring from Edea. Ultimecia also told Seifer about the Lunatic Pandora. He couldn't do anything to save her though.

Ellone came out of the safety lock, dropping to her knees with heavy breaths. "Did you get to find out what happened to Rinoa? Were you able to change the past?"

Squall grabbed on to the wall, pulling himself on to his feet. "I couldn't do anything... What should I do?"

Ellone just looked up at him with uncertainly. "I remember those eyes." She said, a light smile forming on her features. "You just looked at me with the same eyes you had when you were little. Those curious, innocent, puppy dog eyes, I loved those eyes."

"That's in the past."

"That's right. What's important is right now I finally realized that."

_**Can you imagine no first dance, freeze dried romance five-hour phone conversation  
The best soy latte that you ever had . . . and me **_

"I have to help Rinoa now. That's the only thing I can do, Right?" Squall was sure of himself, he was sure that could be the only other way.

"Yes. Talk to her, Squall. Your voice may not reach her, but your heart will. Are you ready? I'm taking you to the nearest past... To the closest present to the future…"

Squall nodded.

He could see her, drifting in space helplessly...

'Am I...gonna make it...? How? I can't do anything... Drifting...endlessly. I'm helpless…' Her life support was low and running out, she knew it too. With her mind now clear, and completely aware of everything that had just persisted, the only thing she could think of is what lay ahead 'No...I'm...That's it. I'm gonna... I'm gonna...die...Good bye. Squall…'

Squall called out to her "Rinoa! No! Don't give up!" He yelled out as loud as he could, hoping against hope that she would just hear.

'………….?'

"Can you hear me? It's Squall... Rinoa! Rinoa!"

She heard him! She heard him! Rinoa began to pant from lack of air, trying hard not to give up, she couldn't now.

"Rinoa, come on! Try to remember!"

She focused on Squall, she felt him, and she felt a warmth surrounding him, surrounding everything about him, it was surreal almost like another presence, it had an amplifying effect.

Her breath grew weak, starting to suffocate…………

"Rinoa! I'm right there with you! Listen to me!"

Finally she started to drift in to unconsciousness, her body drifted through the endless space.

….

…….

……….

A chain necklaces wrapped around her neck started to rise, floating in front of her. She could see it, Squall's ring, and the ring Zell had made for her, just barely through half lidded eyes... she could see the imprint of Griever clearly... She could suddenly feel it, she could feel him, she could feel Griever's power surrounding her body, and Squall in her mind. As odd as this was she didn't care. her breath returned to her, she could breathe!

'I'm ...still... ...alive? Squall...?'

_**Tell me did the wind sweep you off your feet  
Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day**_

! - ! - !

Squall was pulled out of the dream like state, snapping back to life with a decision made. "I'm gonna find Rinoa." Was the first thing out of his mouth.

"You didn't need my help at all." Ellone told him with that same smile on her face.

Squall turned to the ladder with, glancing back with a light smile. "Thanks Sis."

"Y-You're going outside? You're crazy!" Irvine didn't think he could make it.

"Idiot! There's no way he can get back! He's insane! He's gonna run out of fuel and life-support in no time. They're both gonna die." Piet tried to stop him, but his words did no good, before he could even think about physically stopping him Squall had the air lock open and was halfway into space. "Damnit."

_**And head back toward the Milky Way **_

He looked around at the bright stars around, they were so clear from here... 'Rinoa... Where are you? I'm gonna find you, no matter what...' He spotted her, he could see her drifting toward him... 'I have to get in front of her... ...And catch her…'

He spotted her! Rinoa was drifting toward him, all he had to do was... Squall reached out, forcing his way in front of her, with a little repelling from Ifrit, and caught her in his arms.

"Squall...thank you. I heard your voice."

"...I can't believe it."

_**Tell me did you sail across the sun  
Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded**_

"Are we gonna make it?"

Squall was low and fuel and air, just as Piet said, it didn't looked good... They both watched as a thick cloud of monsters fell down from the moon to the earth, carrying Adel's seal with it. From what it looked like, the stream was heading directly in to the Lunatic Pandora.

'What now? Die in space? I'm so helpless... I can't even save Rinoa? Come on, think!'

_**And that heaven is overrated **_

(Squall, you can do this! You came so far, it won't end like this.) Ifrit told him, nearly screaming it at him if it would help him understand.

_**Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star  
One without a permanent scar**_

With little air left in his reserve, Squall looked around franticly through the endless sea of stars.

(Squall! There! What is that?) Ifrit directed him toward what he saw it, thinking it as another monster.

It floated the shade of the Moon, carried down and discharged by the Lunar Cry. A red airship, the Ragnaork.

'That's not a monster...it's a ship!'

(Go for it.)

_**And did you miss me while you were looking at yourself out there **_

With a silent nod he tightened his grip on Rinoa. "Rinoa, hold on…"

Squall and Rinoa drifted towards the Ragnaork, the ship was spinning, but they managed to grab on to the door.

! - ! -!

_**Drops of Jupiter by Train**_


	14. Chapter 12: Ragnaork

Chapter 12: Ragnaork

Squall looked around the interior of the ship from the side door, they were in a small room that served as an airlock between the door and the rest of the ship, and to his amazement everything was in good condition. 'Looks like there's air.' With another quick look around he walked over to a small panel that lay next to a large steel gate leading out of the room. It was simple to understand, with a press of a button he closed the door side door and regained air pressure. '………Ok?'

Did that do it? Was there really air?...Nervously, Squall's hands clinched the side of his helmet and drew it off with a light suction pulling downward into the rest of the suit... it was good thing for him there was air.

With out having to worry about that both of them stripped out of the hot and heavy suits, Discarding them some place aside. 'What do we do now...?' Squall sighed in relief as he turned around to check on Rinoa and found that Rinoa was looking at him expectantly. "Wh…..What?"

Rinoa smiled, both of her hands resting behind her back. "Thank you, Squall. You rescued me again. I can't thank you enough."

"Don't worry about it. I just did what I wanted to do." Even after he said that, she was still looking at him the same way as if it wasn't enough. 'Now what?'

"The space suit was in our way before." Rinoa could tell he was still confused by the look on his face.

'Huh?'

"Give me a Hug."

An eyebrow raised subconsciously. "?"

Rinoa almost laughed. "A real tight one! I need to know that I'm alive!" She said in a playful manner.

Was this really the time. '...Alive? We still have to get back.' Intimate things like this were not Squall's strong point. "We may be alive right now... But look at our situation... You want to live, right? You want to go back and see everyone, right?"

"And not become other people's memories?" Rinoa's voice was half disappointed and half agreeing, Squall couldn't read other people well.

"That's right." Squall reached open to press a button on the panel, allowing the steel gate to slide open so that they could view their current surroundings. The next room was considerably larger, the first thing that came into view was a metal chain link bridge spanning across the lower level to a similar gate. With Squall leading the way the two of them persisted curiously across, only to make it half way and freeze when they heard monstrous roar from below them. "What the…….?"

Looking down through the links they saw a strange purple monster, A Propagator, composed of with 3 legs and an armor like purple torso. Long arms hung down and dragged to the floor from it's shoulder pad like extension, it's head was a yellow cone like casing to three blinking crystal like formations that were probably nerves. Under it a lower jaw hung down with a rack of sharp teeth, a strange monster that had never been seen on earth.

"AHH!" Rinoa screamed in surprised, Squall quickly covered her mouth with his hand to muffle any farther sound. Wrapping his arms around her shoulder and kneeing out of sight. "What is that?" She asked, whispering this time.

"I don't know…….."

"Doesn't look like a very friendly creature." That went with out saying.

"Let's try to sneak by it."

Rinoa nodded in agreement,

(……I've never seen anything like it) Ifrit couldn't begin to think what that might be, but he'd seen a lot of things he'd never seen today..

'How strong do you think it is?'

(I'm not sure…! Look behind you!)

Squall looked back over his shoulder in mild surprise toward the open door they had just came through. Another creature was there, only with a yellow torso, it must have been hidden behind them and didn't notice them. Strange actually. But it was standing near the control panel and didn't see them.

"Let's get out of here."

"Yeah!"

In the next room past the second gate like door was another one sitting before them on top of a lift, this time it was green. But it didn't advance toward them, it just waited and watched. They slipped past it in the door on the left. But as soon as they entered, they were rushed by a yellow Propagator. Knocking Squall back and Rinoa in to the wall.

Drawing his blade, Squall jumped off the ground while Rinoa equipped her projectile with no way to escape something so persistent except to fight. Squall pushed it back just enough so that he had space to lift his blade, slashing it across the chest, while Rinoa cast a Demi spell. Unleashing a wave of oppressive black energy over the monster, it was able to stay standing on account of it's three legs.

It ran at her with a loud, screeching roar, slashing her with both of it's claws from the dragging arms. Squall attacked with his sword again, lifting it above his head, taking a few steps forward and thrusting it down on the creature. He missed, striking the ground and kicking sparks. He tried again, slashing it across the chest. It took advantage of his close range and struck him with it's claws, sending him sliding back. Rinoa fired the projectile on her wrist, sending the rapidly spinning bladed weapon digging in to the monster's chest and finishing it off.

The room had 2 rows of 4 seats each, the passenger room that lead to a panel at the head of it, and the first thing they saw as a message blinking on the screen. 'Hmm...' Not seeing the harm, Squall pressed the button and found it was a recording from the previous crew. The last thing they found out and managed to make before they were killed by the monsters a few years ago. Basically they told said how to destroy the monsters. You have to kill off the pair of the same color in order, or else the other one will come and revive it. Which meant that the crew must have fought back long enough to find this out, and there probably must have been other types before then the one they had already seen.

'Sounds hard…….'

(Squall, I'll handle it) Ifrit volunteered, and quite unexpectedly.

'What?'

(Don't worry about it. I'll handle the monsters, you just find away to get us home.)

Squall nodded, 'Thank you, Be careful.'

The familiar cocky tone came back when Ifrit spoke this time. (I can beat a few monsters.) Actually, Ifrit had started to feel weak only being junctioned, he wanted to at least do this on his own. And Squall should be focusing on away home, he could get them back better then Ifrit could.

Squall rubbed his neck and titled his head back...starring out of the window at the endless expanse of the stars and the moon that came into their view with every spin the ship made, Squall realized that they were in the middle of space on a ship full of monsters that was probably broken any way. Home? He might not make it home...he might not make it home. 'Ifrit…' he felt he had to say something now, in a situation like this waiting another moment might be to late. "...I-'

(Squall.) Ifrit declined, he didn't need to say anything. Squall wasn't the type of person to force himself to say things, doing so now would be out of character. Humans tended to get out of character during these situations. (Don't worry about it.)

'But'

(Heh, human.)

"?"

(I already know, don't worry about it.) Ifrit said with a smirk, he had no problem saying what he was thinking or feeling. He knew that Squall on the other hand did, so saying what he was going to say was probably hard for him, he didn't want to force Squall to reemphasis what they both already knew. (Just focus on getting home.)

'What if...we can't? What if we don't make it?'

(You lose faith so easily.) Ifrit snorted (If you have a strong enough will you can find away to survive. And your strong.)

Squall's eyes closed with a deep breath, 'Is that why your not worried?' Did Ifrit really have that much faith in him?

(Don't stall, I know you can do this.) Ifrit gave those final words before he unjunctioned himself.

! - ! - !

Standing on the lift to the next level and right outside the passenger room lay a green propagator that Squall and Rinoa passed by before. It didn't attack them, and it didn't attack him, it just stood their waiting, inhibiting any path. Ifrit fearlessly walked up to it, and only when he was face to 'face' with did it, did it finally come at him, trying to attack with it's claws. Ifrit jumped with inhuman speed out of the way, thrusting his hand forward with a small growl.

It's whole body burst in to a ball flames with a quick flash, the propagator, with flames dieing, screeched at him. Taking quick steps forward and biting him on the shoulder with those teeth, Ifrit pushed it away, punching it across it's extended mouth and sending it flying back against the wall. again it's body burst in to flames this time by one glance from Ifrit, and this time it didn't get up.

The next room was for the back door of the ship, the hatch, where a purple one was waiting for him. Ifrit's first instinct was to fight, but he remembered the recording and engaging it now would be pointless, so he crossed the room and walked through the next door before it could reach him.

Going through the right door he found a red one waiting at the end of a narrow room just bigger then a hallway, used for food storage, most likely a kitchen. There was hardly any room for anything else and as soon as he was spotted it rushed at him, but he had to ignore it for now, going through the next door before it could get to him.

This time he was in the area under the bridge Squall and Rinoa had crossed upon their entrance, a large open space at the bottom of a stairwell with a double door beside the one he'd just passed through. He could see the creature they had heard before, another purple one was waiting for him, another Propagator to avoid. With an annoyed sigh Ifrit floated off the ground, rising above the creature and acceding on to the bridge one level up. He found the one he was looking for here, finally.

With a hard landing on the bridge, Ifrit jumped in the air again, hammering down on the green propagator with a hard strike from his claws. Blood flowing from the wound on it's chest and sliding backwards from the impact, it cast a water spell to counter. As much as he hated water, and despised the large bubble that surrounded him filled with blue liquid, he took the weak spell with no trouble. Ifrit scowled, shaking the dripping water from his face as he sent another Combustion spell on to the creature, causing the monster to burst in flames with a small explosion. Ifrit finishing it off just that easily.

No, he was most definitely not as weak as he had felt, it was the complete opposite, he was actually stronger. He'd grown so powerful in such a short period of time...

Jumping over the railing and landing in the area laying beneath the bridge, Ifrit was promptly met by the purple type Propagator he'd had to avoid before. It tried to lash at him with it's sharp teeth while he was off guard, but a quick push sent it flying back against the wall. With an impish smirk from Ifrit it's body burst in to flames and it was down and out from an ability that had become second nature to Ifrit. It was a simple matter of heating the right things.

Trailing backwards with a small sense of haste he fought a red creature back in to the hanger where the sealed hatch resided. This type was one of the more aggressive ones, but just as easy to beat. Ifrit ran past it, slashing it with his claws with a few pass overs and leaving it bleeding and burning.

Ifrit headed back to the narrow storage room, and as soon as he opened the door, the Red propagator rushed him. But quickly found it hard to moved the GF an inch. Ifrit punched it and sent another propagator up in flames.

By the time it was over, he was left with out a challenge.

After gaining entrance into the cockpit and connecting to Esthar via radio, it was a simple matter for Squall and Rinoa of following directions and hoping that they would make back alright. There had been barely enough fuel left for them to reach earth, descending in calculated outside of Esthar.

Esthar guards were waiting for them by the time they touched down, not out of concern but because Rinoa had reveled that she was the Sorceress.

'I don't know what to do... This is just another crossroad in my life. But, for the first time, I don't know which way to go. I've come this far because I've...fallen for her. ...Rinoa... Now...am I just supposed to let her go...?'

But I don't love any less

Squall and Rinoa stood at the side door, the Ragnaork open to the bare planes of uninhabited Esthar, watching two ominous looking women and a men were waiting at the door. "Sorceress Rinoa, Hyne's descendant, Come with us. We must seal your power for the sake of the world." One of the woman told her.

She held a evident fear and hesitation, reluctantly clinging on to Squall's arm, but she quietly agreed. "…………..Alright."

"Thank you for understanding, tell us when you're ready."

Rinoa nodded to them, looking back helplessly at Squall with the beginnings of tears forming in her eyes.

"...I should tell you this before I go... I was possessed out in space, there was a sorceress inside me. Ultimecia, a sorceress from the future. She's trying to achieve time compression." Her tone lowered as well as her voice, her eyes down cast for a moment. "She's the only one who would be able to exist in such a world. She, and no other... As long as I'm free, she'll continue to use me to accomplish her goal. I... We can't let that happen, right...?" Rinoa didn't look at Squall this time, only silently telling herself that this was what had to be done. " ...I should go now. to the descendant ...I'm ready."

"All right. We'll be heading to the Sorceress Memorial."

I may not be a lady

(Squall! What are you doing! You can't let her leave like that!)

Squall knew Ifrit was right, and he allowed himself to listen to the GF for the moment "Rinoa! Don't go!"

Rinoa only brush past him, walking a slow decent down the stairs "...Thanks, Squall. But I have to go………"

'………….Rinoa.'

A spark of realization flashing across her features she turned back to him, struggling not to cry through unable to stop a few tears from rolling down her cheek. "... Oh... I still have your ring." She said, her hands inanely drifting up to her chest where the chain lay.

"You keep it."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

She took one last look at him, with a deep breath and repressed sadness, then followed the people who'd come to find her. And as she left, Squall could only tell himself that '...This is what Rinoa decided. There's nothing I can do about it...right?'

(Your, letting her go! It can't be……….Squall.)

! - ! - !

Squall sat in the passenger deck, his arms folded, his head tilted back and his eyes staring at the ceiling with uncertainty, completely silent now that Ifrit had given up on verbalizing his opposition to Squall's decision. That silence was broken when Irvine walked in, much to Squall's surprise. "Irvine!"

"Hey, I'm back!" Irvine said with a smile and a tip of his hat.

"How did you get here?"

Irvine rested his hands on his hips and let out a soft breath "Ahh... I was just fiddling around inside the escape pod, Then the impact from the landing knocked me out for a while. When I came to, it was just me and Piet."

'Piet? Oh, the guy who escaped with us. What happened to Ellone?'

Irvine knew what he was thinking, why wouldn't he be thinking it. "No sign of Sis. I hope she's safe... Then after some time, the rescue crew from Esthar arrived, they told me about this ship, and about you and Rinoa. They gave me a ride over here."

"I see……"

"Squall... When you jumped out into space, you got me thinking... I wondered whether I could do something like that. You were like a hero, Hey, so where's the heroine?"

Squall grew apprehensive when he was fronted with that question "Rinoa is………"

Just as he worked up the nerve to finish, Zell, Quistis and Seiphie came through the door.

""S'up Squall! So glad you're safe!" Zell rested his arm on Squall's chair and leaned over him. "I hate to tell you this now, but we've got major problems down there. Well, here it goes! Some big

thing called Lunatic Pandora came out of nowhere. Matron couldn't achieve what she set out to do because of it. Which is ok, Matron's not a sorceress anymore, Matron gave away her power to someone without realizing it."

Squall clinched his eyes shut. 'To Rinoa………'

"And, ah... Oh yeah, the Galbadian military is controlling Lunatic Pandora, They excavated it from the ocean where Esthar sank a long time ago. Inside the Lunatic Pandora, there's this thing called a 'Crystal Pillar'. It calls monsters from the moon. Then monsters came down from the moon. Total panic down here. It wasn't just monsters that came falling down, Sorceress Adel came down along with the machine that was holding her, I guess the all those falling monsters covered the machine. Lunatic Pandora caught Adel from that all of that. Dr. Odine thinks that may have been Galbadia's true intention. Meaning"

Squall lifted his hand. "Zell, that's enough for now."

"But Squall!"

"I know, I know we're got problems. But I can't think right now."

If Squall couldn't think, there something had to be wrong. "What's the matter?" Irvine asked.

If was subconscious habit for Squall to rub his head when he was annoyed or stressed about something, meaning what ever would follow next couldn't be good. "Rinoa is a sorceress now. She received Matron's powers... An escort from Esthar came to pick Rinoa up. She's in Esthar now."

"We have to go get her!" Seiphie shouted, worry appearing in her voice.

"Was she taken by force?" Quistis asked

"No. It was Rinoa's decision. She was scared about being a sorceress... Scared of being feared...hated... Scared that no one would want to be around her... She said she couldn't handle that."

"Didn't you try to stop her, Squall?"

"It was Rinoa's decision. What right do I have to object?"

Quistis stood over him, her hands on her hip with a chastising expression forming." Stop that! What are you talking about? Why did you go all the way out into space to save Rinoa? To hand her over to Esthar? So that you might never see her again?" Quistis rolled her eyes, throurugh disappointed in her former student "No, right? Wasn't it because you wanted to be with Rinoa? You're a fool."

"Seriously" Zell agreed.

'A fool, huh?' He cast a fleeting look her way, saying something nearly incoherent. "...Maybe." before he started thinking again. 'What am I doing...? I may never get to hear Rinoa's voice ever again... What the hell am I doing? What can I do? ...Of course...'

Seiphie slipped out of the room, Irvine curiously followed.

"Have you decided?" Quistis asked, seeing that their words made him obviously think about his choice.

"Heading to Esthar, right?" Zell didn't seem to be asking, he spoke with more of an expectant tone, giving Squall a look that said he'd better had make the right choice.

"Pandora whatever and Sorceress Adel are out of my hands. I don't know where to look for Sis. The only thing I know is Rinoa. The only thing I want to do for sure right now is for Rinoa, we're going to get Rinoa back."

Yes, right choice.

The whole room began to shake with small vibrations... Suddenly the entire ship began to move. "Whoa!" Zell almost fell from the sudden jump.

Quistis made her way over to the window to make sure what she thought was happening was really happening. "Ahh... Excuse me, we're flying?"

Zell slid through the rows of seats toward another window as if he didn't believe Quistis "I hope this ain't the case but, I can picture Seiphie in the pilot seat, and…"

"...Seiphie screaming. Whoo-hoo, we're flying!"

Squall could only imagine, at least he hoped he was only imagining it. 'And standing next to her, a very excited Irvine………'

! - ! -!

Squall headed up to the cockpit with Quistis and Zell and found Seiphie in the pilot seat yelling "Whoo-hoo! We're flying!" And Irvine very excited just as Squall had imagined, none of them knew if this was a good thing or a bad thing yet.

"Selphie's just amazing!"

Squall peered over the pilot seat to look out the window, they hadn't crashed yet, very good sign. "You sure you can fly this?" Squall asked.

"It just kinda took off! I don't know, It's pretty easy, I think I'll be fine but there's no guarantee it won't crash!" Selphie's words weren't very reassuring.

(No one can predict the future, right?) Ifrit's words were of little consultation also.

If they were already in the air..."Seiphie, head for Esthar. She's probably at the Sorceress Memorial. We're gonna go rescue Rinoa."

! - ! -!

The next stop was the sorceress memorial, and they got there relatively save considering that Seiphie was flying. They even managed to land safely with the right controls enacted. So only a about 30 feet off from the facility, Squall, Zell and Irvine headed inside while everybody else stayed behind.

At the door they were greeted by two guards on duty, both dressed in Esther solider uniforms. In an attempt to get in peaceably, Squall explained that they just wanted to see Rinoa off one last time.

The guards took to it." You want to see your comrade off……… I'll make an exception. Go head." With prompting from one them, the other guard moved out of their way and let them pass.

Just ahead down strait down the main hall was a lab, with an Engineer working on a control panel in a room that lay over looking another one.

The man was working diligently, completely wrapped in his work, that's why he was so surprised when he turned around and saw the three behind him "What are you doing here? This is a restricted area!"

"...To do what I should have done earlier. ...I'll never know unless I do it." Squall told him in a solemn voice, pushing the man out of the way.

"What are you talking about?"

"...I know what I want and what I have to do. ...There's still a chance." Squall peered over the controls into the window that lay above it, able to see another seal just as the one Adel had been trapped in side when they were in the space station. That had to be it. "I'm not gonna look back. I'm taking Rinoa with me."

"What? You must be joking. It's too late." His response wasn't exactly what they wanted to hear and the engineer pulled Squall back away from the controls, standing over it protectively. It was apparent the man was going to stand in there way.

Zell and Irvine gave each other quick, wordless glances, then turn to the man. Irvine drew out his gun while Zell tightened his gloves approached him ominously. "Go Squall!" Zell grinned, making sure the man wouldn't cause any problems.

With a small thanks to the two, Squall made his way down the stairs and in to the hanger that rested bellow the control room where Rinoa was sealed in the device, still fully conscious. Though he couldn't hear her, he could tell Rinoa was surprised to see him.

"Rinoa, hold on! I'll get you out in a sec!" Squall grunted loudly, pulling his arm back and punching the thick glass encasing her, but of course it was going into space it couldn't be that easy. "What am I supposed to do? Come on!"

(Squall. Gunblade.)

'Right'

Squall withdraw out his gunblade swiftly, lifting it above his head, and slicing through the seal with one fatal slash. It easily smashed apart, wires falling from both sides, smoke starting to rise along with Rinoa's freedom.

She jumped out, wrapping her arms around Squall tightly with a pained and desperate look. "Squall, don't! I'm a sorceress." She pleaded.

"I don't care." Was all he replied.

They could here Irvine calling out to them from above, promptingly "Squall! Rinoa!"

! - ! - !

Before they could get out the door and make there exit, they were blocked by Esthar Soldiers. It seemed as if they would have a formidable fight on their hands but a man, dressed in officials clothing intervened. And though he didn't speak, he signaled for them soldiers to back off and allowed them to leave.

'That man... I've seen him before.' Zell thought, looking back at the large man with one last glance before heading off to the ship.

(Any Ideas?) Carbuncle asked him.

'Not really.'


	15. Chapter 13: Truth

Chapter 13: Truth

Back in the ship, everyone greeted Rinoa warmly of course…….

"But seriously, what do we do from here? I'm not really sure, but... Don't we have to do something about that 'Lunatic Pandora' in Esthar? After all, the Galbadians are controlling it. Which means Seifer is behind all this too, right?" Zell asked.

"Seifer is... Ultimecia's puppet." Squall said, thinking out loud. putting together everything he'd learned, that was the only conclusion he could come to.

"Yeah, and that Ultimecia! We can't let that sorceress from the future mess up our world! Let's go kick her ass! We're SeeDs! We're here to destroy the sorceress, right?"... Zell drew in a sharp breath, realizing his choice of words a little too late.

"ZELL!" Squall quickly reprimanded him.

Zell gave a nervous smile, lifting his hands with surrender. "...S-Sorry…"

! - ! - !

They ended up going to Edea's house next to sort things out, all of that left Rinoa and Squall to talk among themselves... until they got an emergency call from Esther's Presidential Palace. They'd come up with a plan to defeat Ultimecia and they wanted them to carry it out being SeeDs and all of their previous acts considering. Notably they found out the man that helped them at the memorial was actually Kiros.

So they went to the Esthar Air station, leaving the Ragnork to be serviced and refueled before proceeding to the Presidential Palace. They entered presidential room…..

'Ward. Kiros. And that's probably…' Squall thought to himself, looking at the three men, each one in official's clothing except the man in the center wearing something more casual who only could be... Laguna. 'What is up with this country?'

Ward looked at Laguna, an unrecognizable expression on his face. "………….."

"Oh, sure." Laguna said with a nod before turning around to meet his guest. "Hey there! Been wanting to meet you guys!" Laguna smiled, talking almost as if he'd known then personally. He softly adjusted the open blue shirt he wore, shifting the dog tag around his neck slightly. "You guys are the ones who were inside my head, right? It was like there were some kind of waves running through my head. They gave us so much power during battle, We thought they were some kind of faeries flying over us."

Laguna stopped when he realized he was getting off subject, he hadn't even introduced himself. "So I'm Laguna, President Laguna of Esthar. Pleased to meet ya... If we weren't in a state of emergency, I'd talk to you some more, but..." His eyes shifted up toward the ceiling with a few seconds of internal thought before shrugging lightly. "Well, whatever. Let's talk. What do you wanna know?"

Kiros sighed, shaking his head. "You'll never get going if 'President' Laguna keeps talking. So why don't you guys throw out some questions, and he'll try to answer them."

Laguna looked at Squall, figuring he was the leader of the group that stood before him. "Man, you look way too serious."

Squall didn't feel much like a casual conversation. "Whatever. Explain the mission to defeat Ultimecia." He retorted with a cold tone.

"Ah, straight to the heart of the matter, Just like a workaholic SeeD." Laguna said. "Uh..."

"Iz it my turn?" A familiar voice sound from behind them, followed by Dr. Odine pushing his way through the party that was standing rather close to the door. The short man still wore those same strange clothing, talking it that odd accent that no one could quite place.

(Dr. Odine? This is going to take a while.) Carbuncle moaned, Zell could hear him make a bored sigh.

"Yeah." Laguna passively nodded, folding his arms across his chest and looking toward the window. "Make it short and easy to understand."

Dr. Odine glared at him, shaking his fist toward the man with angery. "I will talk however I vant!" He was used to Laguna's comments and ignored him for the moment. "Egh, Sorceress Edea told me everything, Sorceress Ultimecia comes from ze future to possess ze sorceresses of present day. Meaning she leaves her body in ze future and sends only her consciousness here, Does zat sound familiar to you?

It did sound familiar. "It's like when Ellone sent our consciousness back to the past." Squall realized the similarities.

Dr. Odine agreed, that was exactly the analogy he was about to bring up. "You're a smart one! My first guess was zat someone in ze future with an ability like Ellone was sending ze sorceress back here to our time. But no! Zat is not ze answer. So how _does_ ze sorceress come back to this time...? You vant to hear how?"

(Not really) Carbuncle murmured audibly to himself with clear annoyment.

"Yes." Squall nodded.

"Eghhhhhh! I kept this a secret to surprise you... It iz because of me, Odine! I researched Ellone's power long ago. I made out a pattern from ze current running through Ellone's brain. Once ze

pattern was determined, it was easy to mechanize. It may only be a toy right now, but in ze time of Ultimecia, it iz an impressive working machine!" A normal person may have kept that a secret from fear of wrath being incurred, but not Dr. Odine. He must have been really bold, considering all of this might possibly be partly his fault.

"Which means there iz a machine which imitates Ellone's power." He continued. "It iz I who made ze first model of zat machine. I named ze machine 'Junction Machine Ellone'! It iz a vonderful thing to know that my invention is used in ze future!"

Carbuncle shook his head. (Not a very good surprise.)

"Junction Machine Ellone." Squall folded his arms, thoughts following. L

Laguna looked at Dr. Odine to make sure there was nothing else, he got an affirmative response. "That's about it."

"So Sorceress Ultimecia came to know about Ellone from that machine." Squall made sure he had it strait.

"And Elle became Ultimecia's target. You can't blame Odine. It's Useless." Laguna was cut off by an angry Odine

"You vant to go outside?" Odine shouted in anger, lifting his fist. "You vant to fisticuffs?"

Zell had to hold back a laugh.

"Ok, we continue ze story! Let's see... There is only one way to defeat Ultimecia. You must kill her in ze future, there iz nothing we can do unless we go to ze future, there is no way to jump to ze future under normal circumstances. But there iz still a way! It iz because Sorceress Ultimecia plans to compress time. Compressing time with magic... Vat good will it do for ze sorceress to compress time? There may be many reasons, but it doesn't matter. Let's just figure out vat Ultimecia iz up to." Dr. Odine looked as if he'd gained a curiosity for the situation..

"In order for Ultimecia to exist in this time, she must take over ze body of a sorceress from ze present. But ze machine must have a limit, Ultimecia probably needs to go back further in time to achieve time compression. Only Ellone can take her back further into ze past, Zat iz why she iz desperately seeking her. We must take advantage of Ellone's power. There are 2 sorceresses in our time, Sorceress Rinoa and Sorceress Adel. Of ze two, Adel has not awaken yet."

Odine looked around at the group to make sure they didn't have any questions before he continued. "Once regeneration is completed, neither Laguna not I will be safe. Sorceress Adel is probably in ze process of awakening inside of Lunatic Pandora. Ultimecia will want to possess Adel, if Adel wakes up. Zat vill be a horrible event. Adel iz a horrible sorceress. If Adel's consciousness wins over Ultimecia, Adel will first destroy this era. So we must use Sorceress Rinoa to inherit Ultimecia's powers. Zat's all for ze mission briefing."

Again he paused, making sure everyone understood. "First, go to Lunatic Pandora. Ellone's probably being held captive inside, so rescue her first. Then kill Sorceress Adel before ze awakening process is completed. Now, we're left with Rinoa as ze only sorceress of this era. Then wait for Ultimecia to possess Rinoa. When Ultimecia arrives, it's Ellone's turn. Ellone will send Rinoa back to ze past with Ultimecia. Ellone will have to send Rinoa and Ultimecia inside another sorceress she knows in the past. Edea or Adel... Zat's up to Ellone."

"Once Ultimecia iz in ze past, she'll use ze time compression magic. We will see some influence here, I don't know vat kind of influence, but once Ellone feels it, she'll cut Rinoa and Ultimecia off from ze past. Rinoa will come back to this world, Ultimecia also goes back to her own world, vat would be left is ze time compressed world. Past, present future will all get mixed together. You will keep moving through ze time compression toward ze future. Once you're out of ze time compression, zat will be Ultimecia's world. It's all up to you after zat." After a very, very long speech I commend you for reading it all) Dr. Odine inquired if anyone had any questions before he left.

"So you were briefed about the mission? ...I don't really understand it, either." Laguna sighed, rubbing his head lightly with a small yawn threatening to come fourth "Will you do it? " Laguna asked.

"Yes." Squall replied without hesitation, but he did have a lot of time to think about it.

The small bit of sleepiness that had formed on Laguna's features vanished, replaced with excitement. "Alright! Let's go! We'll get aboard Ragnaork! Let's do the final briefing in there! I always wanted to ride that thing. Plus the name sounds so cool!"

! - ! - !

Their next stop was on board the Ragnaork, and inside the passenger room.

"Alright! Everyone! From here, we go straight to our final target, Ultimecia! Let's go over the plan again. First, enter Lunatic Pandora and rescue Ellone! Next, you fight Sorceress Adel! It'll be a surprise attack, Show no mercy. Now here comes the tricky part!" Laguna leaned against the windshield and peered outward like an excited child. "Adel will need to pass on her powers before being defeated. Rinoa, you be willing to accept them?" Laguna looked back to her.

She nodded. "Yes."

"Good! Next, we wait for Sorceress Ultimecia to possess Rinoa! This'll be hard on you, Rinoa, but will you do it?"

This time it sounded a little less inviting, she hesitated to answer "...Yes."

Carbuncle sighed audibly in Zell's head, knowing what was going next. (Another long speech…..)

"That's the spirit! Then, Ellone sends Rinoa and Ultimecia to the past! Ellone brings back Rinoa, then head to the future through compressed time... Ultimecia lives far in the future where none of us can _technically_ exist." Laguna warned. "There's only one way to make yourself exist in a world like that, and that's as friends, don't forget one another. As friends, believe in one another, believe in your friends' existence and they'll also believe in yours. To be friends, to like one another, and to love one another..."

Laguna finally was able to tear himself away from the window to face them. "You can't do these things alone. You need somebody. Right, guys? What place reminds you of your friends? Imagine being in that place with all your friends, Once time compression begins, think of that place and try to get there, That's all. That place will welcome you, you'll be able to get there no matter what period you're in. You need love and friendship for this mission! And the courage to believe it, It's all about love, friendship, and courage! I'm counting on you guys!"

With high moral, everyone else disbanded to different parts of the ship, ready to fight. Except for Squall of course. "Love and friendship and all that sounds corny, but everyone seems to be up for it."

"You think it'll succeed?" Laguna asked him.

"We'll try."

! - ! - !

Bahamut unjunction himself headed off alone to some unknown part of the ship, possibly to think...Zell didn't know, he wasn't worried about it. Zell himself retreated to the side door's air lock, sitting down in the isolated room and waiting for the battle to start.

He was starting to have his doubts once again, but he was able to push them back as always, he had other, more important things on his mind.

_**Sincerely I can say  
That we should have met before today**_

Zell drew one leg up, resting his back against he door. 'Carbuncle?'

The small GF unjunctioned himself, seeing there was no reason to stay like that at the moment, and appeared up in Zell's lap. "Huh?"

He didn't stall at all, getting strait to the point. "What's wrong with you?" Zell had noticed something about him lately, Carbuncle had been acting differently, and trying his hardest not to making it even more noticeable then it already was.

_**But I'm (Mmm) happy to have this chance (This chance)  
To be with you and I'm gonna make the best of it**_

"Nothing's wrong with me………" Carbuncle declined, his voice sounded a little unsure.

"Come on, I know something's wrong, you've been acting different now." Carbuncle looked up at him, then laid his head down.

_**This is more than joy for me  
To be like a family**_

Zell laid his hand down on Carbuncle's head, letting the other rest behind his neck. "Carbuncle, come on, you can tell me anything."

"……….." The small GF didn't say anything. "I told you nothing."

"I'm not going to leave you alone until you tell me." Zell told him plainly.

"It's nothing." Carbuncle repeated, annoyment saturating every word of his sentence. "Just leave me alone."

"No." Zell shook his head, "Not until you tell me."

"It's nothing." Carbuncle shot back, staring at the ceiling with the best angry face he could generate.

_**And when we go our separate ways  
This feelin' will always stay**_

Zell moved his hand a little, rubbing the soft spot behind Carbuncle's ear... "Hey! Quit!" Carbuncle yelled, holding back a laugh. He squirmed and moved, but as much as he tried, he couldn't get out of Zell's grip. "Let go!"

_**Look how long we've been around each other Look at all the times  
And we've finally found the chance to get together**_

"Not until you tell me what's wrong." Zell cooed, an entertained smile forming as he watched the GF struggle futilely while trying to resist not leaning in to his hand and admit how good that actually felt. But it was all in vein and after a few more seconds of this, Carbuncle gave in, finally telling Zell what was wrong with him, hesitantly though.

_**(Oh, finally got a chance to get together, baby)  
Look at all the times we've seen each other Oh, yeah (Oh, yeah)**_

"Damnit...Fine…………" Carbuncle mumbled the next few words too low for Zell to hear, still hoping that he'd be left alone if he gave a bare answer.

The boy only smiled, rubbing his head again, "Come on Carbuncle, you gotta tell me."

Carbuncle sighed.

_**Feels so good to be together Look at all the times we've wasted  
Look how long we've been around each other We've been around**_

"Damnit, you wanna know then fine. I love you Zell. Just remember _you_ asked to hear it."

Zell leaned forward just enough to look down at him with an eyebrow raised, not the reaction he expected. "Huh?"

"I mean, your cute, your funny, your confident." Carbuncle admitted. "Your really strong and I like being around you." He overlooked Zell's faults, as many of them as there was, and listing them would only embarrass Zell farther. Though all of them were something that he liked about Zell, like how loud he got when he was mad, or that face he made when he was really annoyed...

_**Look at all the time, look at all the time, girl  
And we've finally found the chance to get together Oh...sing it, Coko**_

Zell sat back and began to pet Carbuncle again, his eyes drifting closed. "You really like me that much?"

"Yeah, and your with Bahamut now." Carbuncle sighed. "I'm starting to hate being this small." He never noticed it before, he never looked as his size as a setback...

_**If you take a listen deeply, deeply  
You can hear the pride in my voice **_

"Hmm…………" Carbuncle let out a sigh of relief after finally saying this.

"Well, there's nothing I can do about that. And if it's any consolation to you, I always liked your size... What do you want to do?" Zell really didn't know what exactly to say to this.

"It really doesn't matter to me, I just could hold that in any longer." Carbuncle looked up at Zell, "What's with you?"

_**It's not that hard to see that  
I'm happy about the way we came to be, be**_

Zell continued to stare at the ceiling, almost as if he was avoiding eye contact with Carbuncle. And he was silent for a moment before he finally answered... "Well, this whole thing is starting to get to me. At first I was worried because we didn't have a plan to fight Ultimecia. I guess I'm glad we have a plan now, but it's the plan that worries me."

_**If I ever get the chance Oh, ho again I know that  
We make sweet music together**_

"It is kinda………."

"Ominous?" Carbuncle offered.

"Yeah, that's a good word for it...It's not the _whole_ plan that worries me, it's one part." Zell sighed.

"What?"

_**Look how long we've been (Oh...) Look how long we've had around each other  
(Look around, look around, look around, look around)**_

"The Time compression, what Laguna said about believing in each other and stuff...It sounds good and all but I don't know if I can, I have too many doubts, I don't think a world like that could exist." Zell's head fell back against he steel door with an audible thump, his tone becoming flat and dry. "What if we try this and it's not what we expected, what if we try this and we end up just getting ourselves killed in vain for something that's not possible?"

Carbuncle couldn't give him an answer.

"Or what if we do succeed? How are we supposed to find our way to the future, how are we suppose to get to the right time? What if we miss it completely and end up getting trapped some place...I can't get it out of my head, something just keeps telling me we can't make it. I can't survive like that."

_**And we've finally (Finally, finally) found the chance to get together Oh...  
Look at all the times Look how long it's been, **_

"Your thinking too much." Carbuncle shook his head, pushing Zell's hand way. He climbed halfway up the boy's chest, keeping his hind legs relatively in Zell's lap while so that he was face to face with him. "If you don't believe in yourself, I'll believe in you. There's no way I'm going to let you die in there."

"I don't know, what about you? If I can't believe in myself, I can't believe in you."

_**we've seen each other Ho...  
Feels so good to be together (Since fate put us together once again, put us together)**_

"Stop. Thinking." Carbuncle gave him a forceful nudge into his chin with his head. "Yes you can!" He shouted, "We're connected remember, you won't be alone in there."

"What if we get separated, I don't know if we can stay together in a world like that..."

"Don't worry, it's not going to happen. Trust me." Carbuncle flashed a confident grin, showing all of his teeth. "I won't let it. And don't forget, Bahamut's going to be there too, there's no way we can fail."

_**Look how long we've been Look how long it's been around each other  
And we've finally found the chance to get together We finally got a chance to be together**_

It became silent for a moment as Zell rested his hand on Carbuncle's back, stroking the sensitive area.

_**Look at all the times we've seen each other (All of this time, all of this time)  
Feels so good to be together Feels so good**_

"Hey Carbuncle."

_**Time is precious, we must take advantage  
Especially when we're often apart (We're always apart, yeah), oh**_

Carbuncle was to busy focusing on how good his back felt that he barely heard him. It took a second prompting for him to answer "Huh?"

_**Baby, when you see See me see me looking proud So proud, girl  
I'm only thinking of me and you Me and you (Me and you) Me and you, baby**_

"Thanks."

_**I'm only thinking of Me and you, me and you  
Thinking of me and you, oh...**_

Carbuncle shook his head, his smirk growing wider. "Thank you."

_**Look at the times we've been together Look at how we've been around  
Now I have Finally, finally got the chance to be**_

"For what?"

_**Look at the times we've been apart  
Though I have never had the chance to meet you**_

"Not going all crazy on me when I told you I loved you." Carbuncle admitted. "I swear I thought you'd freak out."

Zell asked. "Your not mad or anything because we're just friends?"

"Yes." Carbuncle made an audible growl and shifted his narrowed eyes away from Zell. "But I can live with _friends_, especially if you get to hold me like this."

"Hn……….Alright……Just Friends."

_**Look how long we've been around each other I wanna Be with you  
And we've finally found the chance to get together**_

! - ! - !

! - !- !

_**All the times by LSG feat Faith Evans, Coko**_


	16. Chapter 14: Take down

Chapter 14: Take down

The ship came head on at the Lunatic Pandora, two machine guns on both sides roaring with continuous fire. Sending out a spray of bullets, that were stopped by an invisible force before they could reached the Pandora itself.

"Shields!" Irvine warned, but Seiphie kept going head on in a collision course with the large machine

"WHOO-HOOOO!" With that, the Ragnaork crashed in to the shields with guns blazing and a violent spasm in the cockpit. Inch by inch, the broke through the green energy of the shields, bursting into the steel walls of the Lunatic Pandora in a monstrous ruckus and making a large hole.

(Well it worked, You ok Squall?) Ifrit asked, while Squall picked himself off the ground, unable to keep balance through something like that.

'I'm fine.' They managed to shatter every window in the cockpit during there 'entrance', the good news was that it was now much easier to get inside.

Zell and Rinoa joined Squall, who was the first to group to climb through the now open windshield frame and go inside.

! - ! - !

They climbed down out of the Ragnaork, ending up in an immensely large room that led up a short but wide series of steps to a hall way, their path relatively uninhibited by the wreckage scattered around the room they'd caused.

They herd a familiar voice echo from the hall when they were just about halfway there.

"Big sound, this way. It's probably them ya know?"

Followed by another familiar voice "THEM? NO, IMPOSSIBLE."

'That voice………' Squall immediately recognized them, they could only belong to……

"Ahhhhhh! It IS Squall, ya know?" Raijin gasp with surprise as he ran into the room, approaching them immediately,

He was followed by Fujin, who didn't seem as surprised "SHOCK. GOOD. CONVENIENT."

"That's right." Raijin raised his staff, pointing to Rinoa. "Hand over Rinoa, ya know?"

Squall looked back a Rinoa, who looked back at him. "No! I'll never hand over Rinoa! And we're taking Ellone! I won't let you resurrect Adel, either!"

"You're greedy, ya know! Not fair, ya know?" Raijin said, a little annoyed.

"You can't be serous." Zell said, lifting his hand to his forehead and shaking his head in a very Squall like manner.

"PERSUASION, USELESS. SEIZE." Another unavoidable battle began, Fujin lifted the bladed projectile, throwing the saw like weapon along the ground. In a trail of dust it rolled along the ground up Rinoa, slashed her as it launched off her head and boomeranged back to Fujin. Angrily, Rinoa lunched the projectile on her wrist, striking Fujin on the shoulder as it passed by.

Squall ran up the small flight of stairs at Raijin, holding the newly upgraded gunblade Lionheart just above his shoulder with both hands. Bringing it down on Raijin with enough force to knock him back a few steps. Raijin thrust his staff in to Squall's stomach, pushing him back with the wind nearly knocked out of him.

Zell directly after, punching Raijin in the chest before he expected it, and sent strong punch to the stomach before Raijin pushed him away, stumbling backwards again. Rinoa headed off the second wave of attacks by casting a flare spell on Fujin, the rush of blood red energy gather around her with enough volume to give her body the appearance of a red tent and distorting the air surrounding her body, followed powerful combustion of the energy with a shockwave that threw her on to her back.

"Anger!" Fujin pushed herself on to her knees and rose from the ground, countering the flare spell with a Tornado spell of her own. Quickly forming, quickly intensifying winds blew around the three, engulfing Squall, Rinoa and Zell in a whirling cyclone that drew them from the ground and tossed them around in the confusion of the localized tornado. None of them could count how many times their body's collided with each other or some of the large chunks of steel already scattered at the ground before the wind ceased and finally dropping them painfully to the ground.

Shaking off the last spell, Squall cast reflect on Rinoa, surrounded her with the barrier while Raijin charged at Zell, he slammed his staff in to Zell's chest. Zell managed to knocked a way the head staff with his arm before it could connect and leaving Raijin wide open. He brought up his right arm with one fail swing and punched Raijin across jaw, followed by a quick strike of lighting from a thunder spell cast by Rinoa. The strength they'd acquired was enough to take him down.

Raijin stumbled backwards until he felt his body run into a wall and he let himself sag on it, one hand rest on his stomach. "I ...I lost again, ya know…"

Fujin soon followed, being finished off by a final strike from Rinoa's projectile while she had been focused on Raijin.

" CALLOUS... RETREAT. TEMPORARY." Fujin growled, backing up until she was side by side with Raijin, then she grabbed him by the arm and retreated into the hall which they'd come from.

"R-R-Right! We're not through yet, ya know!" Raijin shouted back, before turning his back on them completely and bursting in to a full sprint.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"I wonder do Fujin and Raijin know what their doing?" Rinoa asked thoughtfully, while wondering through the maze like halls composing the internals of the Lunatic Pandora, led by Zell who'd been here before.

"What do you mean?" Squall asked, Looking down at the transparent floor of the tunnel that lay above a seemingly endless pit. He wondered what was down there.

"Don't they know what they're doing to the world? I mean, they already helped revive Adel." Rinoa started. "They seemed nice before, I just can't believe they're doing all of this."

"It's Seifer, they're determined to follow him, I don't know why though." Zell replied with light musing in his tone.

"I'm sure we'll see them again, why not ask them then." Squall suggested, it wasn't a bad idea, it was better then just wondering.

"Speaking of Raijin and Fujin, guess who's back." Zell stopped, causing his two teammates to stop in tern. They were standing just ahead bellow a arching frame housing a short pair of steps and a doorway it lead to.

"We meet again, ya know? We'll take you on, ya know?" Raijin shouted confidently. They had to admit, even after losing that Raijin and Fujin were persistent.

Fujin placed a hand on his chest just as he stepped forward and pushed him back. "NOW, NO FIGHT, NEXT TIME."

Raijin seemed disappointed at first, dropping his head and glaring at the three like a scolded puppy...then his face glowed with the spark of realization as he just remembered something. "That's right! We have a surprise, ya know!"

Raijin and Fujin turned back and headed through the door, leaving them alone, or so it looked at the moment.

"Oh great, it's that thing again." Zell looking up to the source of a slowly growing shadow...

"What?" Squall looked around and didn't see anything.

Zell crouched lightly, raising his hands in a ready position. "Here it comes."

A large steel machine dropped from the ceiling, where ever that was, in a complete blur. It was almost human in shape, except it was much larger and it had no legs, the guard Mobile Type 8.

"What do you mean 'again'?" Rinoa asked, staring up at the ominous looking machine.

"This was the thing that threw us out of this place the first time. Guess it's pay back time." Zell pounded his fist in to his hand anticipantly, watching the two orb's on it's shoulders dispatch.

Squall cast a Triple spell on himself while Rinoa did the same. Fighting this thing once before, Zell gained a good sense of when to attack it and when not too. So he waited, beginning the process of summoning Carbuncle.

The left orb began to move, firing a blue laser out of it's lenses that swept across all three of them, causing a trail of geysers like explosion out of the ground. The right orb fired out the same beam in succession, resulting in another explosion that propagated across the three of them

A little weakened, Rinoa cast Protect spells on all three of them, Squall cast shell directly afterwords. 'Carbuncle, wait a minute.' Zell said mentally.

Carbuncle didn't ask why, he just agreed (Ok.) The two orbs along side Mobile Type 8 returned to it's shoulder, while a red beam fired out of Type 8's head. Now the body was attacking directly, that had to mean something.

It scattered around them, burning a design along the ground in a Mandingo attack. Each line glowed, radiating a red light that covered them. At first nothing happened, but then the light started to burn and an intense pain followed forced all three of them to drop to the ground.

(Squall? Are you alright?) Ifrit asked.

Even though he could barley move, he managed to say his usual discarding 'Fine.' Wondering what type of an attack that powerful had been.

Rinoa cast a set of 3 haste spells on each of them, while Squall used a megalixir to heal them. With strength regaining, Zell rose off his knees 'Alright Carbuncle go now.'

(Right!) A black hole appeared in the ground in front of them and Carbuncle jumped out, launching himself high in to the air uncurling from the ball he'd emerged from. Taking a quick look over the three of them to make sure he was facing the right direction, Carbuncle lifted his paws to the jewel on his forehead. Cringing lightly with a strained grunt as he shined a bright red light out of it, the light covered them, surrounding them with reflective magic before falling into the ground again.

Zell knew it would probably counter a physical attack, in fact, the machine's whole tactic was to counter. So he warned his friends to take a different approach. 'Ready Bahamut?'

The dragon mentally nodded with an anticipant growl (Yes!)

With a loud roar, Squall, Zell, and Rinoa faded and Bahamut descended from the darkness above.

Spreading his wings, Bahamut fired a round of smaller blast, surrounding the Machine in smoke and flames. Bahamut roared as a white smoke mist poured from his opened his mouth, drawing in energy and firing out his limit break Mega Flare. The chrome blast plowed into the Mobile Type 8 and erupted in a powerful explosion that rattled the floors and walls.

Fading back in to reality, they found the machine was still in flames, but they quickly died off. A flare spell came from the machine, sending an rush of fire and energy over the three before a combustion of the red followed. The three faded again, and Ifrit came rising up out of the ground, standing a top a large meteorite.

Ifrit looked down on the machine, noting the orbs on Type 8 were separating from it's body again. Ifrit floated off the rock, using his flexibility to bend back and pound his cuffed fist in to the rock. Sending the burning mass plummeting towards the ground and smashing in to the Machine.

It had a good resistance to fire so the damage was minimal, but still caused a good amount. The three faded a third time in succession, this time Rinoa summoned Alexander. The large holy beast towered above mountains in some distant place that didn't seem to exist anywhere. From his shoulders, Alexander expelled projected rays of holy light into the sky.

They appeared in the Lunatic Pandora, as if coming from a mirror of reality or a portal of some type. Each ray struck the machine with great accuracy, The holy light tore through the machine's armor easily, destroying it with an increasingly growing sizzling. Leaving behind a burning shell full of holes.

Looking ahead to the small stairway, they knew Seifer were there, and with that security sentry out of the way, they came one step closer to their goal "Guess this is it………" Rinoa said solemnly, a little nervous at the responsibility that lay ahead of her.

Squall ascended the short stairway, pushing open the doors "Let's get this over with." Squall was the first to go on ahead.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

The next room was an deck open to the outside where they found Seifer standing on a platform before they open sky with Raijin and Fujin by his side holding Ellone. "We've come to take back Ellone." Squall announced, his sword lifted threateningly.

"Looks like we got company, Show'em your hospitality." Seifer directed arrogantly... but Raijin and Fujin looked at each other, then up at him with light uncertainty, apparently they were having second thoughts. Raijin sighed, looking as he was about to act hostilely toward Squall.

Fujin declined. "RAIJIN, STOP!"

"What's up?" Seifer peered down over the railing, looking down at the two.

"We had enough, ya know…" Raijin looked him in the eyes, rubbing his head nervously.

Fujin released Ellone, giving her a small, prompting push. "GO." With out hesitation, Ellone moved away from the two, realigning herself safely behind Squall.

"Wait outside. Laguna should be here soon." Squall told her, she nodded and headed for the ship.

"Hey, hey... Come on people." Seifer looked at the action with an quirked eyebrow , trying to figure out what was happening.

Raijin just shrugging. "Seifer, we're quittin' ya know? Don't know what's right anymore, ya know…"

"Exactly my thoughts. I thought we were a posse." Seifer's voice held a questioning tone down at his friends.

With a heavy heart Fujin said "POSSE... We are. We always will be, Because we're a posse, we want to help you." None of them, except for Raijin and Seifer, had ever heard her ever used normal speech patterns, so it was surprising. "Whatever it takes to fulfill your dreams, we're willing to do But... You're being manipulated, Seifer, you've lost yourself and your dream. You're just eating out of someone's hand, we want the old you back! Since we can't get through to you, all we have now to rely on is Squall! It's sad... Sad that we only have Squall to rely on... Seifer! Are you still gonna keep goin'?"

Seifer lifted his gunblade, lifting one foot onto the railing in preparation. "Raijin, Fujin! It's been fun!" Apparently not, it seemed he'd keep going with this, not even seeming to care that he'd lost Ellone. With a sigh, Raijin and Fujin left, giving a small passive look to the three on their way out.

Squall prepared his own gunblade. "Are you going to continue with this knight thing?"

"The knight has retired." Seifer gave a passive wave when he said this. "I guess you could call me a young Revolutionary." Seifer jumped down from the platform, landing before Squall.

"What do you think you're doing?" Squall shifted his gunblade defensively, placing a foot back to farther ready himself.

Seifer began to size up the three. "I've always gotta be doing somethin' BIG! I don't wanna stop.

I'm gonna keep running! I've come this far... I'm gonna make it to the end, to the goal! There's no way I'm sharing it with you!"

Just as the fight started, black clouds formed above them, creating a heavy rain inside of the towering rooms. Odin appeared, riding his horse down from the sky in an surreal manner, holding his large sword extended at his side. The red eyed stead charged forward ominously at Seifer, Odin ready to slice him in head. "Is that the best you got!" Seifer shouted, pulling his sword out to his side and slashed outward at the passing Odin just as Odin lunged the massive weapon at him. The clash of an attack that happened in an unseeable flash echoed outward, followed by the cry of Odin's horse slowed to a stop a few feet behind a completely still Seifer.

An arrogant smirk crossed his lips, raising his sword again as a completely severed Odin fell to the ground, his sword, long since knocked from his hands was sent flying upward. Slicing through the clouds disappearing past the walls of the Lunatic Pandora……….

"Still wanna fight?" Seifer asked.

"The hell If I'm backing down because you got lucky!" Zell shouted angrily, obviously furious at what had just happened.

(Zell! Wait!) Bahamut warned, but Zell was already charging head first at Seifer with his fist drawn back. But he faded just as he was about to strike.

Seifer blinked questioningly. "What?"

A man garbed in a red cloak appeared in their place, another man who had become a GF as Odin did, Gilgamesh stood before him with 3 swords embedded in the ground around him. "You were the one that did this?" Gilgamesh didn't sound as if he was asking, holding Odin's sword before him with light examination. Seifer didn't answer, Gilgamesh really wasn't paying attention to any answer he could have given any way, he was more focused on the sword.

Dropping it behind him, the white eyed man lifted Sephiroth's masune. Gilgamesh came at Seifer with great speed, slashing him across the chest with the blade and passing him by before he even expected it. "!" He was sent flying backwards with a bloody gash appearing across his torso, landing hard on his back and rolling to a stop from relinquished momentum. He didn't get back up though.

Sheathing the blade, Gilgamesh turned away saying something that didn't seem to make sense. "Where is the cliff of dimensions…?" Before he faded away and the three returned in his place.

Squall looked at the defeated boy just shaking his head 'Seifer'.

With a loud grunt he suddenly scrambled to his feet, as hurt as he was. "Not yet! It's not over yet, Squall!" Seifer shouted persistently, charging forward, roughly grabbing Rinoa with one arm around her neck and pulling her away. It was so unexpected she didn't see it coming until she was trapped in his strength, she only complied.

They waited a moment before going after her, Seifer was making the plan easier then expected…….


	17. Chapter 14 part 2: Adel’s Final Battle

Chapter 14 part 2: Adel's Final Battle.

"Seifer! Stop it! Haven't you done enough? I know you're not like that!" Rinoa shouted while Seifer forced her along, his gunblade against her neck.

"Can't go back now! I can't go anywhere! The sorceresses as one! That is Ultimecia's WISH!" Seifer spoke with a strange tone, it wasn't comforting.

"...Seifer. No more... Please?" Rinoa pleaded, planting her feet to try and get him to stop.

For a moment, it seemed as if he would. "Rinoa…"

Squall charged in to the room one level above where they were from behind the two along with Zell and Irvine. "Seifer! NO!"

Seifer just looked at him arrogantly. "Rinoa and Adel! The sorceresses as one! Watch closely, Squall!" Seifer pushed Rinoa towards the waiting Adel, waiting by the broken fragments of her seal, immediately using her powers to Junction with Rinoa.

Rinoa was trapped, her body imbedded in Adel's chest, an almost complete Junction, certainly a physical one.

"I guess this is it, the only thing keeping us from Time compression is her." Irvine raised his gun over his shoulder, casting a Regain spell on Rinoa who looked to be in a considerable amount of pain.

(Squall, choice your attacks very carefully.) Ifrit warned. (Using curtain magic, or carelessly attacking could mean the end of Rinoa.)

'Right.' Squall nodded, clinching his blade and charging for Adel. He placed a carefully aimed slash above Rinoa's head, just bellow her neck. Adel lifted her hand and pushed him back, casting a Thundaga spell.

An unusually strong pillar of lighting came down on Squall from the sky, knocking him off his feet from the outward moving force.

'Come on Cerberus. I'm really going to need you help now.' Irvine prompted GF, and almost a second afterwards, thanks to high compatibility, three pillars of light came shooting through the ground from under him, casting double and triple on the group.

Zell weighed his chances, his attacks were most powerful when sent to the midsection, and Adel was too tall to attack her head effectively. Any magic he cast would probably hit Rinoa with his luck. 'Oh man, I'm screwed.'

(Zell, let me handle it.) Carbuncle pleaded.

Why not. 'Go for it.'

Just then a swell of fire from Adel washed from up from under them, covering all three of them with a wave. She was powerful, and her attacks hit all so they couldn't afford to cast reflect.

Irvine countered with a well placed shot from his gun, aimed at Adel's neck, leaving an impacted bruise and causing her to wince though it didn't penetrate. Then, with a pull of the slide to clear out used shell casings, fired another round in to Adel's arm. The sorceress only absorbed HP from Rinoa to help heal herself.

A hole appeared next to Zell and Carbuncle climbed through, jumping on to his shoulder. "Ready?" The small GF asked.

Zell cast a Scan spell on Adel to try and form some type of strategy. "Yeah, let's go." Carbuncle started by using magic, casting Reflect on Rinoa.

Squall attacked with another well placed slash on Adel's body, but just as his sword lowered and he tried to move back she grabbed him by his neck with a strangling hold and his body ignited with flames. "Uhggaaaa!" She then tossed him painfully aside, absorbing more HP from Rinoa while he sprawled on to the ground rolled to a stop relatively close to his previous position.

Irvine continued to fire, shooting another round at Adel, this time striking her legs.

"Her goes nothing!" Carbuncle cast a flare spell that struck Adel and reflected off of Rinoa, sending another similar red combustion at Carbuncle. The small GF was thrown off of Zell's shoulder, rolling dizzily to the ground... he shook it off though. "Don't worry about me, go."

Zell took a step back for a small boost and ran at Adel, jumping in the air and delivering a powerful spinning kick to the side of her head.

Adel used a Demi spell, causing an oppressive black wave to force them painfully to the ground. Irvine used triple to cast Cureaga on everyone, while Squall went in for another attack, managing not to get countered this time.

Adel lifted one hand, sending a literal wave of fire at them. It stopped just in front of them, Carbuncle used his powers to shield them. trying to push it back. Zell helped, using triple to cast three water spells and dispelling the wave.

Zell charged at her again, jumping up to substantiate the height difference and throwing a hard punch across her face. Adel caught him as he descended, grabbing him by the neck and using a Flare spell on him. He was caught in the center of an the explosion of red energy, but Adel still had him, casting a second Flare spell. This time sending him flying back out of her grip and doing enough damage to knocking unconscious out.

"Come on Zell! We gotta keep going!" Carbuncle quickly cast a Full-Life spell on Zell.

Irvine used triple to cast a set of 3 Firaga spells on Adel, erupting a series of up shooting gushers of flames. Squall did the same casting 3 Thundaga spells and sending three repeating bolts of lightning on to the sorceress. It was working, She was starting to wear down.

Carbuncle cast a Demi spell, reflection a part of the spell from Rinoa on to himself but took the damage in stride, it would be the only way to hit Adel with large attacks.

Irvine used his limit break, firing a barrage of quick shots from the shot gun into different parts of her body but managing not hit Rinoa.

"This is over!" Zell delivered the final blow, charging at Adel, jumping up above her head and thrusting a swift kick to her head. With a strange outcry the sorceress was knocked back to the ground, and some where doing the process Rinoa slipped out of her body, unjunctioned and Adel's powers absorbed. Ultimecia did as expected, possessing Rinoa right after

Laguna ran in to the room hastily with Ellone not far behind, apparently as an escort to protect her. "Ellone, now's your chance!" Laguna told her, she wasted no time making her way over to Rinoa, seemingly cast something on Rinoa and sending her, Ultimecia and Adel back in to the past.

This was it, Time compression was about to start.

Zell looked at Carbuncle, who flashed a smirk before rejunctioned himself. (Don't worry Zell, your thinking about it to much.) Carbuncle told him, sensing his nervousness easily.

(We'll make sure you get there.) Bahamut reassured him.

(We were supposed to go to Edea's house right?) Carbuncle asked.

(Yes.)

(Just checking.)

Zell lifted his hand to his forehead, feeling his stomach turning into knots and his breathe growing heavy 'Oh man...'

"Ok, Ellone." Laguna directed. "Just get Rinoa back."

A few seconds later Rinoa woke up with a started. Looking around, she knew exactly what was happening. "I...was inside Adel... The young Adel………" She told them with a shutter.

"Ultimecia's inside Adel. Exactly as she wanted." Laguna told them, he took one last look around before he decided to get out of the line of fire. This wasn't his fight, he was too old, this was better left to his son, "Ok, this is the showdown folks! Time compression is about to begin. 'Love, friendship, and courage'! Show'em what you got!" It was time like these, Laguna showed everyone that he could be more then an idiot. He honestly wanted to fight with them, but he couldn't, he had other things to do. Like getting Ellone out of here, with all the solders that had been put out of commission the Lunatic Pandora was heading strait for the ground.

(Ok, This is it Squall, are you ready?) Ifrit growled, he apparently was anxious to do this.

'Yes, what about you?'

(As ready as I'll ever be.)

'...What do you think is going to happen?' Squall withdrew his sword, standing ready as he saw the air around him begin to distort.

( I don't know.)

'How can you be so confident about this?' Squall asked 'We have no clue what's going to happen.'

(Don't be so worried.) Ifrit grunted (We won't know until it happens, so there's no use worrying about it now. We're _going_ to get through this, both of us.)

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Oh man! Oh man!" Laguna move as fast as his situation would allow him to, a firm hold on Ellone's arm as he ran through the strange halls composing the Lunatic Pandora. The ground was shaking horribly, almost to much to keep balance on.

"Are we lost!" Ellone called forward in a tired voice, panting heavily as she just barely kept up with her father. It seemed as if they had been going through corridors way too similar for much too long.

"No! I know this place like the back of my hand." Laguna tried to sound confident and reassuring, the truth was that he'd known only one definite path, which had been blocked by out bursting flames and explosions. He had no idea where he was going.

"Ahhaa!" Ellone screamed in fright, crouching her head lightly to pass under an explosion of flames raining down from the ceiling, she stumbled, just barely making it past a rain of steel pillars with a sharp pull from her father.

"Are you ok?" Laguna stopped, turning back and planting his arms on Ellone's shoulder to look her over.

"I'm ok." She lifted her hand, crouching over in attempt to catch her breath. "How much farther?"

Laguna was tempted to lie, but he flinched when another explosion shattered through the facility, causing the ceiling above them to swell with flames. "Ok, I'm not going to lie to you." Laguna crouched down, pulling Ellone down to the ground with him an in attempt to evade the flames sending embers raining down on to them. "We're!"

"!"

The ground beneath them suddenly collapsed, dropping the two of them out of the level, through a rush of flames and debris. "Ellone!" Laguna reached outward and grabbed on to a protruding steel beam, catching Ellone's wrist before she landed on to a section of buckled ground where jagged metal's waited to impale. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine..." Ellone looked down... "I think I can make it, just swing me to the left!"

Laguna complied, swing her to the left and letting her go, thankfully she landed one solid ground safely out of reach of the jagged pile. Then he dropped down, landing next to her. "That was close!" Laguna let out a deep sigh, then coughed from the smoke, they couldn't stick around. "Ready to go?"

Ellone nodded "Yeah." She took Laguna's hand and continued running through the tunnel, only to take a few steps and be knocked over by an explosion bursting out of the ground. "Ahhaaa!"

"Ellone!" Laguna landed hard on his back a few feet away from her, his head slamming painfully against a wall. Ellone landed relatively safely, falling upon her hands and knees, she didn't seem to notice what was coming behind her. "Ellone! Move!"

Ellone looked over her shoulder and gasped when she saw a large Wendigo above her with it's fist hammering down on her. It was already in motion, she didn't have time to do anything except flinch "!"

"Ellone!" Someone came out of nowhere, a boy around Squall's age, ramming the large monster with his shoulder hard enough to knock it off balance and send it sprawling to the ground, more easily knocked over on account of the earthquakes. This boy was dressed in a Garden school uniform, neat brown hair with blue eyes and though he was about Squall's height Ellone knew him to be younger.

"Nida!" Ellone smiled thankfully as Nida helped her up, she immediately wrapped her arms around him with a tight hug. "You saved me!"

Laguna, rubbing his head furiously, used the wall to help himself on to his feet and made his way over to the two, his head low under the hanging wires. "Thank you...let me guess your a SeeD?"

Nida shook his hand with a nod. "Yeah I'm a SeeD from Balamb garden, I didn't think either one of you could fly the Ragnaork."

"He's the pilot for the Garden." Ellone explained "I haven't seen you in a while Nida, Thank you so much." Ellone knew him since Nida was always in the Library, during her short stay at Balamb garden she'd become acquainted with him. She also knew that he wasn't the fighting type, which meant he had to be brave to come in to a place like this.

"I really don't think this is the place to talk." Nida softly removed Ellone's arms and prompted her and Laguna onward. The three of them ran through the tunneled pathway, staying low under the inflamed ceiling until they made it to the end.

It was a large gate blocking their path, labeled emergency exit. It couldn't be opened by physical means. "Oh man, we have to go back." Laguna sighed, still trying to pry it open.

"No, that's not it." Nida walked over to a panel laying beside the door "This panel opens the!" Nida flinched when the panel burst apart in a flash of sparks, right before lights dimmed and cut out. The only illumination they had was from the flames above them. "Uh..."

"Now how do we!" Ellone was cut off, her voice cutting off in to a startled gasp when the ceiling collapsed.

"Ellone!" Laguna dived outward, pushing Ellone to the ground and covering her with himself. He took the full blunt of the falling weakage, protecting her from the impacted and the heat.

"President Laguna!" Nida ran over to where the man was buried, pushing away the debris that covered him and trying his best to avoid the flames. When most of the weight had left him, Laguna managed to push through, leaving Ellone unharmed.

"Dad!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine." Laguna reassured her, even though that had just hurt like hell. "How are we going to get out of here? We can't go back..."

"Don't worry about it." Nida reached behind him, drawing a small radio from where it was clipped to his waist. "Cho, it's on to plan b...and remember it's the second red button." Nida looked back to Laguna and Ellone, placing one foot back to keep from falling on the increasingly shaky ground. "You two may want to get down."

They didn't even have time to comply before the door exploded, the force was enough to knock Nida, being a person standing closer, on to his back... "Damnit Cho..." He mumbled, watching the smoke clear "I thought the plain was to wait 15 seconds..."

"What was that?" Laguna grabbed on to Nida's arm and pulled him to his feet, feeling a small gust of wind from the open door.

"Our way out." The smoke cleared away with the small gust, revealing an alternate entrance to the room where the Ragnaork was lodged into the side of the Lunatic Pandora. That explosion had to be some type of gunfire or missile. Nida jumped through the shattered windshield into the cockpit while Laguna helped Ellone inside. "Your too anxious Cho." He scolded.

He was directing it toward a young boy sitting in the pilot seat, with messy brown hair and matching eyes. He wasn't wearing a garden uniform, but a long sleeved yellow shirt with a large black stripe across the center and a pair of blue jeans. It was Chocoboy, who Nida knowingly called him Cho, and his real name was Maru. "I broke the door didn't I?" He said with a smirk.

"Your going to have to learn to pay attention." Nida told him to move out of the seat, starting the engine just as Ellone and Laguna made it inside. "Oh man, this thing is going down...We better get out of here.


	18. Chapter 15: Time compression

Chapter 15: Time compression

The floor dropped, becoming like water, Squall, Rinoa, Irvine and Zell fell through. On the other side they actually found clear blue water.

"Where are we supposed to go?" Irvine asked nervously, looking around at the new world he was sinking into

"To Edea's house!" Squall told them, grabbing on to Rinoa.

"I'll... Probably disappear…" Rinoa said fearfully, noting that she could breath in this water.

"Just stay by my side. I won't let you disappear!" Squall reassured her with a tight grip.

But still despite that hold that they inanely started to drift apart a little, not enough to cause alarm though. Bird like creatures flew in a distant flock that surrounded them, swirling about them in a hypnotic manner, the next thing each of them knew they really were separated. The creatures formed a spiral around them like a drain to the water, reaching the center from there they fell from a placid sky at sunset.

(This place………I have a strange feeling about this.) Ifrit thought, looking through Squall's eyes.

'This place is creepy, I have no idea what's happening…..you think we can make it?' Squall asked, not realizing how fearful he sounded at the moment. It didn't mater, he was scared and he couldn't hide it from Ifrit, but who wouldn't be scared going through something like this.

(We came to far not to make it now.) Ifrit told him strongly, he was ready for whatever came next, Squall, didn't know if he was or not. He didn't know what to expect, but with Ifrit, he knew he could handle it.

(This is so Cool!) Carbuncle shouted, apparently he wasn't worried at all. Zell didn't exactly see it that way, he found it dizzy and nauseating.

Large bubbles began to rise from below, each holding the image of a time period, each moment was something Zell remembered

Clearly.

One of them held the first time he met Carbuncle, another held when he met Bahamut. Things so on and so forth past that, some that he'd forgotten or didn't know he'd ever known. "Oh man! I'm gonna be sick!" Zell fell until the bubbles ceased and he saw a bright light.

When he emerged he was back in another familiar place, the commencement room in Deling city's presidential palace, the place he'd first met Carbuncle... Squall and Rinoa where with him, Seiphie, Quistis and Irvine appeared a few seconds later. The whole atmosphere seemed to be fogy, residing in a haze of bright light. At the head of the room was a chair where 'Edea' sat with her back turned to them, behind them was a regular save point. Which Rinoa realized wasn't there the first time she came here.

"..." With slow steps she walked up to it, touching it carefully with her finger. It reacted some how, doubling, tripling, replicating until they covered the room. "What?" She looked around at all of them until her eyes wandered over the chair at the head of the room again. 'Edea' stood up, lifting her head.

More strange things began to happen, sorceress began to fade into existence. They were dressed in strange, brightly colored garments, appearing because of time compression. They weren't very strong though, it wouldn't take long to beat them.

What was more distracting was the effects of time compression on everything around them. The commencement room changed to the city of timber with a bright light. The buildings the ground, everything seem to melting, being destroyed and decomposed by time itself, a very powerful force, another reason Ultimecia wanted to control it. But god it was creepy, so very creepy, especially the continuous sound of steel buckling it was creating.

'I don't know about this, I still think I'm going to fade or something like that' Zell thought, looking around with even more fear in his eyes. 'What if I start melting like that? Oh man, is that why I'm feeling so sick!'

(We wont let you, remember that.) Bahamut told him. (If you just relax then you won't feel this way.)

(There's no way were going to let anything happen to you, now let's go already!) Carbuncle was excited, anxious to say the least.

'Ok..., Ok.' Zell lifted his hand, using a Haste spell on himself, while Squall cast Triple. Rinoa fired the projectile on her wrist, slicing through one of the two Sorceress with a drilling weapon, after one hit, her body started to twist and spiral, finally fading away.

A ray of light came from the sky, another sorceress descending in to her place, exactly identical to the last. The light spread when she landed, basking everything in a red tent that cause the air to distort into spirals and ripples. When it faded, they found themselves in a forest, not sure which one. It also was under the same effects timber was, everything around them melting as if in a strong heat.

"Ok? That was strange….." Zell said looking around with more nervousness, still hoping that he didn't start to melt like his surroundings.

"Don't think about it, just go." Squall charged at the second sorceress, lifting his sword above his left shoulder and swinging downward, slashing through her at about the waist line and causing her to fade away. The remaining sorceress let out a strange laugh, casting a Firaga on Zell. A trail of flames ran along the ground from her feet, surrounding Zell and erupting in a swirl of fire around him. He only fanned away the remaining flames after the initial eruption.

Zell attacked another sorceress, delivering a sharp uppercut in to the stomach and another blow to the chest. The sorceress faded and disappeared from the strong blows, allowing another to drop down and take it's place, and with it the location changed. This time they found themselves in another forest, this time one covered in snow.

Rinoa again fired her projectile, slicing through the new sorceress, and again another similar one came from the sky, changing there location to an eerie Windmill. It was even stranger here, there was absolutely no sound, not even due to the time compression destroying everything around them.

Squall rushed another sorceress, plunging his sword in to her and watching her fade and distort around his blade. This time a different sorceress came in her place, with long robes and different headgear. They changed locations to the Galbadian missile base.

The new type sorceress cast a Blizzara spell on Rinoa, thick icicles came at from all sides, surrounding her in a block of ice. Then it shattered, leaving her with more damage then the last sorceress could have done.

Zell struck the old sorceress with a strong blow to the head, Bringing his other elbow down on her, she faded before she could hit the ground. Letting through another sorceress identical to the new one.

This time when the location changed they where outside the garden this time, at the exit of the parking lot by the front gate. It was even stranger to see this place start to melt.

"I'm so going to be sick..."Zell moaned, holding his stomach "Damnit...Is it just me or is everything spinning."

(It's just you.) Carbuncle gave him a mental kick (Stop thinking! Your good at that ...I mean that in the best possible way.)

'Hey!'

(No, I mean like when you fight you...Uh, I can't explain it.)

The new sorceress made a strange laugh while casting Tornado. Winds came from both sides, swirling around them and pulling them in along with a large chunks of ground under them. Finally they were thrown to the ground, it wasn't one of the hardest Tornado spells they had had.

Rinoa cast the same spell, pulling the sorceress from the ground with violent winds. By the time they fell to the ground, both Sorceress were fading.

Another new Sorceress took place the previous one's, changing the location to Dollet in a wavy red haze. The second sorceress came down, changing the location again to the fire cave. Now this was a problem.

'It seems hotter this time…' Squall thought feeling the scorching heat surround him, even this place seemed to melt if at all possible, and the molten rock surrounding seemed to be getting hotter.

(I'll cover you) Ifrit took over in a low level physical junction, enough to take any damage and be ready to summon. In turn, Bahamut took the heat damage for Zell, and Alexander took over for Rinoa, it was enough to keep the humans from passing out.

It seemed like the heat would be enough to kill the enemy off before they could but they weren't so lucky, seeing the sorceress could take the heat Ifrit summoned himself. This time he emerged from the large hole at the center of the cavern where he'd used to reside, pausing to take another look around at his old home. With a fierce roar, Ifrit thrust his hands above his head in turn erupting a geyser of lava around the island of land. Then the torrent fell on hem like a wave, incinerating them before it even made contact.

The location changed again, this time they ended up on a large island of a rock, that was plummeting downward at an amazing rate. A strong energy radiated from the bottom, it was so bright that you couldn't look at it directly. They didn't need to, they had a much large problem ahead.

Another variation of the sorceress, but this one was a large monstrous creature like a snake with arms.

It lifted it's long arms and struck Squall, making him stumble back, almost falling off the platform.

Squall, Zell and Rinoa faded from reality again, this time as Bahamut summoned himself, dropping from whatever darkness lay above the falling island. With out stretched wings Bahamut caught himself just above the monster. Opening his mouth, Bahamut fired a volley of 5 smaller explosions that erupted around the Sorceress.

The Island didn't hold up to that, it broke apart before Bahamut could even fired the mega flare, and let the sorceress mutation fall through. The down said was that Squall, Rinoa and Zell reappeared to find nothing was under them anymore.

"Whooaaaa!" Bahamut swooped down under Zell, catching him on his back in-between his wings

. Ifrit drifted in to reality, wrapping his arms around Squall from behind, while Siren took care of Rinoa.

! - ! - !

Everything was white, a blinding white that seemed to take an eternity to tone down to an acceptable level. Squall and Ifrit found themselves outside Edea's house in the back, over looking the beach and the ocean. Zell and Bahamut where in side the house, finding themselves by the closed back door, and Rinoa and Siren where around the side in the field of that lay be side it.

Seiphie found herself outside the front door with Cactuar, and Irvine ended up in the bed room with Cerberus. Quistis and Quezacotl where near Squall, right outside the back door.

It seemed like they all made it through.

They all met up with Squall, just coming out of Time Compression, by the time all of them arrived he was knelling down near the body of a white SeeD, who was draped over a steel stake, and though dead he was holding a thick black chain that led up to a floating Castle. "We're fighting across generations………" Squall realized it as soon as he saw the sight, just loud enough for everyone to hear. This was why all those sorceress appeared.

The stake was nailing down large steel chains, all connected to a floating island holding a Castle. 'Think this is it?' Squall gently tugged on the chains, they looked stable, and they seemed to be the only way there...

(I'm pretty sure.)

With the final battle nearing ominously, the group made there way across the chains, all fears of heights pending, to Ultimecia's front door. They were so close to ending this whole thing, it was practically staring them in the face, though they had a few obstacles waiting for them.


	19. Chapter 16: The Castle part 1

Chapter 16: The Castle part 1

The fourth dimension, it's been theorized that the fourth dimension was time and space. During time compression, past present and future become compressed in to one, not ness early proving the fourth dimension theory but making it arguably true. When Time compression is started, a 'gate' to the fourth dimension is opened, all places through out time become one 'space' that can be moved through freely. Not just to move through out time, but to move from one location to another freely, a teleportation like attribute. If time was questionably the forth dimension, complete movement freedom was most definitely it. You could go a million miles with out using time at all.

The Fourth dimension is also the Fifth dimension in an essence, when you move from one place to another with out using time. It's world beyond time, the Fifth dimension, or the Fourth since they were the same.

(Where did you learn all of that?) Carbuncle asked.

(Picked it up.) Bahamut told him.

'This place creepy, _very_ creepy.' Zell shuttered, looking at the large gates standing before him. Who could build something like this?

Squall seemed apprehensive in choosing his team at first, but he decide to go with Zell and Irvine

Upon stepping past the front door he knew something was wrong. Squall stood there for a moment, at lest a whole minute of being absolutely unmoving as the stared at the elegantly designed main hall. He then quickly backed out. "What's wrong Squall?" Irvine asked.

(This place must have a GF seal) Ifrit told him.

When Squall walked through those doors, it was like a part of his mind was sucked out, a part of himself. It was strange, and creepy, kinda cold with out Ifrit's warmth. This was gonna be hard.

"There is a seal in there, not just on GF, but on everything. My inventory even stopped working." Squall warned them, Zell and Irvine gave each other a sideways glance toward each other.

'What did it feel like?' Squall asked, wondering if it had been as odd for Ifrit as it was for him.

(It was, strange.. like I was forced out of the Junction.)

'Is there anyway around the seal?'

(No not from here, you'll have to find the source from the inside.)

'Damnit….'

(Squall….)

'Yes?'

Ifrit paused for a moment, for the first time Ifrit had actually been reluctant about something (……….Hurry.) One word that spoke volumes to Squall, they it had been meant something that he just wasn't ready to face yet. Maybe after he broke the seal… Yeah definitely then………

'I'll do my best.' Taking a deep breath, Squall walked into the door. Feeling the cold aloneness wash over him Squall silently cursed to himself, he was ready to get this over with.

They found themselves in a large hall with a grand stairwell right in front of them. At the top of the stairs a large monster stood and waited, watching them silently.

"What do you think it is?" Irvine opened the chamber of his shotgun, loading some ammo in side before flipping it shut.

"Why don't you go ask it?" Squall uttered sarcastically.

Irvine looked at him with narrowed eyes, "You know what, I think I'll do that." Irvine gave one last glaring look to Squall before running up the stairs.

Zell, seeing the flaw in that move, tried to stop him but it was too late. "Hey Irvine…….you think that's a good idea?" Zell asked, scratching his head.

Irvine stopped at the head of the steps, calling back "Were about to find out aren't we?" before turning face to face with the large four-legged monster Spinxara.

It looked at him with a strait face. "Fight me for they Sealed Powers." Or something of that nature.

"Looks like our best bet." Irvine called back in a matter of factly tone, prompting Squall and Zell to join him

"How fast can we take this thing out?" Zell wondered, tightening his gloves.

"Let's find out." Squall lifted his gunblade, watching the once statue like monster come to life.

The four legged creature jumped at Squall, but he moved to the side against the railing, avoiding the attack, then bringing down his gunblade in to the side of it's head. The beast like mask that was on it's face fell off, reveling a more human like one. It was creepy, very strange.

Irvine fired a round of shots in to the monster, causing it howl and stumble back towards the double glass doors behind it. Zell finished it off with a strong punch to the side of the head and an uppercut to the chin. Spinxara tried to lash out, but everyone moved out of the way, one final kick to the back of the head, caused it to ended up tumbling down the stairs.

"Easy, see." Irvine sliding down the railing with his gun on his shoulder, landing in front of the defeated monster. It's eyes were closed and it's body was unmoving with out breath, but it's mouth still talked.

"Choice thy seal."

"I guess it's wants us to break one of them." Irvine relayed back, his eyes indicating he didn't know anything.

"Break the GF Seal." Squall chose firmly and surely with out hesitation or a second thought. With Irvine relaying the choice the monster faded in a cloud of blue smoke and a loud snapping sound. As soon as it cleared, Squall could feel his Junction returning.

'Ifrit? Are you here?' Squall asked.

(Yes…I'm here.)

'Good to have you back.' Squall sighed, amazed that he actually said that.

(Good to be back….)

'Ifrit, we'

(Later.)

Squall opened the doors in front of him, finding a balcony over looking a dim main hall with a broken railing leading to a large chandler. On the other side was another balcony and a door leading outside. The only way to the door was across the chandler in front of them since the stairs were broken by some manner of falling pillars, and it looked sturdy enough.

"This is nothing." Zell confidently went first, leading the way across the steel bridge followed by his two teammates. Halfway across began to shake, and with another step it suddenly dropped in a dizzying fall towards the ground.

"Whooaa!" Irvine dived outward, grabbing on to the edge of the adjacent balcony they'd been trying to reach just in time before he was taken down with his two teammates, while Squall and Zell ended up falling to the next floor. "Oh man..." Irvine pulled his elbows on to the edge of the broken railing and pushed himself up.

Squall jumped off the plunging chandelier, landing on his feet while Zell fell off face first, dropping to the ground on his stomach.

"Ow….." He groaned loudly, climbing to his knees and rubbing his head where he sure a mark would be left behind.

"You guys alright down there?" Irvine called, leaning over the edge to get a better view.

"Fine." Squall gave him an agitated answer, obviously frustrated. His frustration quickly left his concern when he heard a muffled roar from bellow him. 'There's something under us?' Just ahead of him was a hatch, leading to the wine cellar. 'It's probably another monster with a seal.' Squall thought.

"You heard that right? We're going to go check it out." Squall shouted up to Irvine, glancing over to Zell to make sure he was alright.

"I'll go take a quick look around, see what I find." Irvine, seeing that they were ok, dusted himself off and headed to the door behind him.

! - !- !

He found himself outside, on a balcony looking out over the court yard. But more importantly, a large monster floated right in front of him, seemingly made completely out of large, clear crystals. He flinched at the sight. "What the hell is that!"

"Fight me for your sealed powers."

"Oh man………" Irvine knew it would probably be hard with out using some type of magic, just physical attack. This monster, Krystal, had a strategy of basically one thing. To counter every single attack, and counters rarely missed.

Irvine fired a well placed shot dead center in to the monster rough enough to knock off a few shards of it's body, and as expected it countered, with Flare. Irvine was surrounded by a burning red energy that exploded with enough force to propagate in to a shock wave. Being thrown back into the door, he was starting to have second thoughts about this fight. "I think I'm going to need some help with this one."

In a second, the two GF Brothers appeared, Sacred to the left, and Minataur to the right. "That'll work." Irvine pushed himself all of the door with a small thanks to his GFs. That's when he noticed that the monster was floating, the brothers were earth GFs "You guys sure your………_Right_ for this job?"

Minataur nodded with audible snort, tightening his strong grip around the sledge hammer. "We can take out something like this, easy." Sacred said, he surprisingly strong for his small size.

Irvine shrugged. "Alright, go ahead." there was no harm in letting them try, pointing out the unfair advantage the monster had. Krystal could use magic, they couldn't, plus they had no way of healing themselves. But the brothers were still strong, strong enough so to take this thing down.

The larger Minataur pulled back the large hammer to his side, sending it smashing in to the crystal monster. Krystal was thrown roughly to the side, smashing through the balcony's railing and flying off. As soon as it's body dropped out of site, a much larger flare spell came, enough to hit all three of them at once and shatter anything frail around.

Irvine started to notice that the two GF around him had a larger advantage then the monster. While on the ground, they basically invulnerable, useful, very useful. "Hn. I guess you boys can handle it."

The monster floated back up in to view, waiting for the next attack just beyond the edge. Irvine cocked his gun, firing another round of shotgun ammo that burst and scattered threw out Krystal's body. This time it didn't counter though, must it must have been planning something.

Sacred attack next, pulling the over sized hammer over his shoulder and charging with the strength of at lest a hundred humans. He pulled the hammer from his shoulder jumped in to the air and sent it crashing down on to the large monster by the head. Irvine managed to fire a quick shot before it was sent smashing through the ground, down to the level under them in a rain of falling shards.

Minataur came after it, jumping in to the hole and slamming his own weapon on to the fallen monster. The blow was so hard that it sent crack shooting out of the spot, smashing it to thousands of pieces. Even though it's body was smashed and scattered around the court yard, it still manned to stay alive.

"Unseal Magic!"

! - ! - !

Squall and Zell cautiously crept down the spiraling staircase, moving past the stacked barrels of wine neatly placed in stacks. At the bottom of the stairway, they came unexpectedly face to face with a large, flying monster. It had a large yellow, needled beak with two more on each one of it's back winds outstretched to it's side. Appropriately named Tri-point.

"USING ELEMENTAL ATTACKS, WHATEVER I DON'T USE, I DON'T LIKE"

It yelled as soon as the battle started.

"Uh….. Thanks for telling us…your weakness?" Zell said rubbing his head a little, this couldn't be a good thing could it?.

The Tri-point shook itself a little, casting a thunder spell on Zell and Squall. The two of them were knocked up a few steps by the unusually strong spell, right where they begin to curve, seeing that they couldn't keep balance on the structure, they pushed past Tri-point and on to the relatively open stone floor.

Squall retaliated with a water spell thinking it was the best course of action seeing as how it's body was sparking, surrounding the three pronged beast with a bubble water. It basically ended up electrocuting itself, causing more damage then the shifting water pressure.

It came back with Firaga, creating a large explosion that covered Squall in flames.

"It's not using thunder anymore..." Noticing that the monster was so hot the air around it began to distort, Zell used Thundaga, striking it with a thick pillar of lighting that streamed from the ceiling, demolishing some of the stone covered floor under enroot to the ground. It was working.

Zell cast double on himself fast enough to get in another similar spell on Squall. Squall used this to cast Reflect him and Zell, just in time for Tri-point to cast Fiargea, which was reflected back on it with no damage done at all.

Squall used double to cast two Holy spells on to himself and Zell, which in turn were reflected on to Tri-point becoming even more powerful by the bounced backed effect, powerful enough to overlap, so both spells cast at once.

A string of white orbs surrounded Tri-point vertically, while another set of them surrounded it horizontally. Both pulling in thick rays of holy light from all sides until it all blended together in a blinding flash.

Tri-point had just taken a lot of damage, it was starting to get desperate. So, it cast scan on Squall to study him 'Why would it do that?' Squall thought to himself.

(It's determining your strength, maybe to see if it's the next attack can work….)

Tri-point took off, flying over them in a blur, crashing through the walls behind them and soaring outside. "Huh? Is it running?" Zell turned back questioningly, looking out of the large hole it had created.

(Zell! MOVE!) Carbuncle shouted franticly, and apparently Ifrit did the same for Squall. Both of them dived to the side as Tri-point rushed past them from behind them at deadly speed and burst of electrocuted wind, narrowly missing the two though able to knock a few barrels out of place and in to the gaping hole. Very close.

"We can take it down with one good attack." Squall told Zell, returning to his previous spot before the monster.

"Got it." Zell thrust his hand forward, casting one last Flare spell, creating a large explosion of strong red energy. Zell covered his eyes with his arms as a strong shockwave swept over them.

Another explosion erupted from the creature from the double in effect, and thick smoke rose from it. "Unlock Revival!" Squall shouted, just as it crashed to the ground, erupting in to flames with a loud crash.

! - ! - !

"This place is seriously creepy." Seiphie looking at the old surroundings, reasoning that they were long neglected by the thick cloud of dust and the spider webs, not to mention all the monsters. Seiphie, Rinoa and Quistis had taken the stairs in the main hall, choosing the right path on the balcony and ended up in a Library full of books and paintings. And there also was a large clock imprinted on the ground.

The largest picture laying in front of the clock had a title, in fact it was the only one they couldn't read, it was too faint and warn. But after looking at every other picture, and the clock on the ground that had 3 hands indicating which pictures to look at….

"Why! What possible reason could Ultimecia have for making something this complicated? She doing this on purpose." Rinoa grumbled indicating the large puzzle they had to go through find out the name of this painting. Apparently, the name is a key to unlock a seal, which as the clock. Quistis had found this out by looking at a book, a diary really, the only one off the shelve in an obvious place.

"She trying to throw us off, she knows we're here." Seiphie accused, looking at the large painting standing on the central wall of the room.

"She probably knew we were coming, that's why everything is sealed. The only way to get the seals off is to beat her monsters. She wants to wear us down, or just kill us off before we get to her." Quistis explained her.

"That's not smart, all we have to do his beat the monsters, go take a nap and come back. It's not like she's going anywhere, If she leaves, she leaves Junction machine Ellone. Which we could just smash." Rinoa said, thinking before every sentence.

"If we leave, the seals will be back up by the time we return. And then she'll know _how_ strong we are, and have better monsters guarding them, plus Time compression has already started, it doesn't really matter of she leaves the machine now. It's best if we try to get this over with quickly before she has a chance to do that, we're running out of time anyway." Quistis said, making sense actually.

"Alright, let's get this over with……The name of the painting is…." Rinoa started, looking around to see if anything would try to stop her. "VIVIDARIUM ET INTERVIGILIUM ET VIATOR." she shouted, unleashing the seal on the clock. First there was only the sound of wind, then nothing.

"VIVIDARIUM ET INTERVIGILIUM ET VIATOR………In the Garden, sleeps a messenger? What could that mean." Quistis folded her arms, staring down at the clock.

"Looks like there's no monster here, let's go." Seiphie said turning around. "That was a big waste of time!"

Apparently there _was_ a monster here, and those words really _did_ unleashed it. It dropped down from the ceiling, floating just above the clock imprint, which was now glowing.

"Oh crap………" Seiphie, nearly started by it, pulled her nu-chucks out, facing the large golden monster with thick, strong arms, and no legs, just a point where they should have been. It was called Trauma, and it was a machine.

Quistis used a scan spell, it was weak against wind.

"Alright! Let's see what you got! Meltdown!" Seiphie cast, holding both hands extended outward with her weapon clinched tightly between them. A large, hollow purple beam from her hands, striking the machine and covering most of it's torso.

It body shifted hue to purple under meltdown's effect, it's defense was gone. Leaving a perfect opening, Rinoa cast triple on Quistis, who made good use of it, casting three Tornado spells. Winds ripped around the monster, lifting it higher and tarring at it before throwing it back to the ground.

Two more of those tore through the machine before it finally retaliated with Pulse Canon. Large white beams shot in to the air, raining down on all three of them with tremendous force. An explosion erupted from the impact zone, throwing all three of them out of the created flames and colliding in to the wall.

"Ow!……." Seiphie wined, sliding down the wall where an imprint had been created and landing weakly on her feet. Rinoa began to summon, while Quistis used a Cureaga spell on them under the triple effect, healing most of the damage from the last attack.

The three girls faded out of reality, and the towering pandemonium appeared in their place, much larger then Trauma and nearly breaking out of the library's high ceiling. Taking in a deep breath the wind GF drew Trauma in to it's body with a vortex of wind. Holding the machine in a large sack with high wind pressure, then finally blowing it out in hurricane force winds that pulled the machine apart in to scrap metal.

When Pandemonium was done, there was hardly anything left of the monster, well, in one piece anyway. "Unseal Limit Breaks!" Seiphie shouted with excitement. A black smoke rose from the remains, breaking the seal of choice.

Now they had broken all of the seals that were really key to survival in a place like this, all they needed was draw and item. Anything else was unimportant.

"Let's go find the others."


	20. Chapter 17: The Castle part 2

Chapter 17: The Castle part 2

"This place is really strange, I mean, who makes all of this stuff?" Irvine wondered, he, Squall and Zell were in the basement, right in front of a door to a prison cell.

Squall carefully placed his hand on the wooden door and slowly pushed it open, though all attempts to be discrete were shattered by a loud creak illuminating from the hinges. He peeked in before entering, making sure there was nothing waiting for him before going in. Finding no threat, he entered the small round cell. Laying on the ground in front of him was an old corpse that was half rotted, it smelled as much, in it's hand was a key.

Squall knelt down and pulled the key from the dead body, noting it had a surprisingly tight grip. But before he could get back on his feet, the ground started shaking. "What? What's happening?"

"Fight me for thy sealed powers."

Zell and Irvine ran in to the cell, looking around for the source of the voice. "Squall, What was that?" Irvine asked.

"I don't know."

It made itself known when something large and red unearthed itself from the ground. It was like an Iron Giant, but it's armor was burgundy red with a sharper sword, and by the looks of it a lot more powerful.

"Oh man, look at that thing!" Zell wasn't to anxious to fight it, he wasn't sure he could even hurt it...so instead he took the safer move and summoned. Irvine was ready though, regarding it just like every other Iron Giant he'd defeated in the past. He fired the shot gun at the machine's head, all the bullets just ricocheted off, it did leave a dent though.

"GWahaHA! PHysical attackS? USeleSS!" The Red Giant laughed deeply in an odd voice, lifting it's large sword and swiping it across all three of them, knocking them off there feet with it's shear power.

"Ok, we need a different strategy." Zell groaned, pulling himself up from the ground, Bahamut had absorbed the damage for him though Squall and Irvine were left with bloody gash across their left side and torso. Right after he spoke all three of them faded away, and Bahamut dropped from the ceiling. A burst of smaller shots stuck and erupted on to the armor, leaving it scorched as smoldering as Bahamut drew in a deep breath and fired a chrome Mega Flare. The beam slammed down on to the heavy armor with an oppressive forced, enough to leave a crater in the ground and send large cracks shooting through the concrete.

The attack left the machine smoking profusely in thick black clouds, but relatively undamaged. It's armor was too strong, the outer layers forged of diamonds, along with the last inner layer, both surrounding steel.

"THaT Gf was A WaStE Of TimE!" The Red giant yelled.

(Did he just call me a waste of time……) Bahamut mumbled with a growl.

'Calm Down.' Zell told him, seeing that Bahamut had done more damage than the Machine led them to believe, though not nearly enough.

Squall studied the large machine silently, he didn't think magic would work to well on something this well protected. not elementals anyway. So he tried something different. "Demi!" Squall thrust his hand forward, unleashing a wave dark, oppressive energy over the Machine. It was enough to force it to it's knees for the spell's duration.

"Urgh! N-NO more DEMI, pleaSE...!"

(Bingo, we have our weakness.) Carbuncle laughing at the monster's reaction, the voice and the phrase together were just plain funny to him.

The giant held his head as if trying to shake it off, then lifted the large sword with one hand and brought it down on Squall, Squall dived to the side, wincing as the blade stuck his shoulder now streaming with blood. Zell followed Squall's example and cast Demi, bringing another wave of dark energy over the Red Giant.

"If we keep this up, this fight will be over in no time." Irvine cast tipple on Squall, allowing him to cast three Demi spells in concession on the machine and father shorten the duration of the fight. With three of the spells bearing down on the armor it couldn't hold on to the sword, causing the blade to slip out of the Giant's hand and fly behind the humans, out of it's reach.

"DaMn HuMans!" Even with out the weapon it was still strong, proving that by just jumping in to the air and causing an earthquake on it's short landing. The ground bucked up wildly, streaks of fractures dividing the land allowing it to come up in jagged sectors to father rattle them.

"Man that hurt!" Zell cast Demi again though this time more as retaliation, the oppressive forced causing it to stumble in to the wall while trying not to fall. With an angry yell ran towards them with loud, earth shaking steps, raising it's large fist and punching down on Irvine. He was smashed painfully into the ground, knocking more then the wind out of him.

"Son of" Irvine leaned on to his gun and pushed himself on to his feet with a light weakness, countering with another Demi spell.

One last spell from Squall was enough to send the Giant crashing to it's knees and falling face first in to the ground, rattling the cell. After a moment of waiting idle, it was clear that it wasn't getting back up

"Unseal Items."

! - !- !

Rinoa, Quistis, and Seiphie wandered around the maze like halls of Ultimecia's castle for what seemed like hours. Completely lost, and dead tired. But the mindless wondering did have some rewards, they did find a key that looked very promising. Of course, any key labeled Treasure Vault Key was a promising one.

"I wonder what's in it." Rinoa rested her hands together behind her back, looking up with wondering eyes, leading the way down a dark hallway to the Treasure Vault room. They knew where it was because they had passed it so many times. About 20 actually.

"Maybe it's Gil, you could always use more gil." Seiphie proposed excitedly.

"It could be gold." Rinoa commented,

"Or silver." Seiphie followed. "Or both."

"Well I really don't care what's in it, I just want to get out of here." Quistis sighed tiredly, adjusting her glasses with a small push at the rims with her finger.

"I still want to know, it could lead to Ultimecia………" Rinoa told her, still trying to think of a possible way it could. But anything could happen in this place, she wouldn't be surprised if it did, she wouldn't be if it did happy either.

"I hope it doesn't, we're all separated." Quistis said, becoming a little more apprehensive about going in side the vault now that Rinoa had mentioned it.

Seeing what chain of thought she had caused, Rinoa attempted to ease Quistis mind, though still nervous her self. "Don't worry, I'm sure Ultimecia wont be there, why would she?" Yeah, that sounded right, why would she be there?

"It could give us like a key or something that might help us get to her….?" Seiphie said optimistically. "Or an ambush, everyone loves treasure."

"What if it has Jewels in side?" Rinoa said in a dreamy type voice, just imaging what could be in a place like this, what couldn't be here?

Seiphie's face lit up at the thought, she would love to find a vault full of jewels. "What if it's something really strange from the future. Like something that could make Diamonds or something." Seiphie actually thought that that could be there, with good reason too.

Which actually brought up the question of machinery, that lead to a logical next thought. "What if Junction Machine Ellone is in there?" Quistis inquired, thinking out loud.

Seiphie let her hands rest behind her head, her eyes drifting over to the windows on the right wall they were passing by "I never thought of that, that seems like something you would want to keep in a vault. Especially with all the monsters running a round here. A ruby dragon could just smash the thing." Seiphie had seen some mean dragons around this place, she wasn't sure what the machine looked like but a dragon could smash any machine.

"What would you do if it was in there?" Rinoa asked curiously.

"Smash it, Definitely." Seiphie spoke surely with out hesitation. Both of them turned to Quistis with an expression that asked the same question, who thought about it carefully.

"I would………Go back in to the past and see what would cause a person to do all of this. Or better yet, I want to see Ultimecia's mother." Quistis corrected herself, getting agreeing reactions from Seiphie and Rinoa.

"You know, that's a good Idea, how did she grow up? Was she always this... _evil_? Or is she just crazy?" Rinoa pondered, coming to a stop at vault doors centered in the hall and retreating the key from her pocket. The doors were two regular wooden double doors. But upon opening it, it reviled thick steel reinforcements.

All of them waited anticipated as they got there first glimpse in-side the vault with entering light. It was round room with 4 coffins, and that was it...that was disappointing, a really big let down.

"I think she's just crazy. Who would keep coffins?" Seiphie said warily, her hands dropping slowly from her head with tension.

"What do you think is in there? It is a _treasure_ vault, there maybe something inside?" Quistis said with clear uncertainty as not to get anyone's hopes up, laying her hand on one of the coffins. They looked to her to open it, and with a deep breath, she did. But she found nothing.

"Huh? Well...maybe this one." Rinoa tried the next, and found nothing also. Seiphie tried the one next to it but it wouldn't open. With three failed attempts Rinoa took one last look inside that lay against the right wall, it wasn't completely empty, a looming cloud of purple smoke was there.

Creepy.

As soon as Rinoa closed hers, Seiphie's came open on it's one, making the girl flinch and jump back "Whoa, that was weird." Seiphie said, carefully leaning forward to look in but found the same thing. Quistis closed hers and opened the last one next to Seiphie trying to find the cause of all of this. And to their surprise, all of them slid opened.

They heard a roar, and a monster appeared in front of them. It was large, and looked like a Behemoth, but it was white with blood red stripes across it's body in an almost pattern, that was the only difference.

"Well, At least we know what was in it……" Seiphie jumping back out of it's reach with a startled sound, this was _really_ creepy.

"Fight me for thy sealed powers."

"So we _really_ have a choice!" Rinoa shot back smartly.

"I am Catoblepas. What do you humans plan to do... Against the likes of me…………"

A different voice not belonging to the girls came from out of seemingly nowhere, replying to him. "Arrogant aren't we………"

Before anyone could ask any questions, Rinoa, Seiphie, and Quistis faded out of reality.

Something red fell from the sky, a cloth or cape. It fell flatly to the ground, then began twisting around as if caught in a strong upward draft, raising up and taking form. A tall man appeared, with white eyes and gray skin, more noticeably were the 4 swords that fell to the ground, one in front, one behind, and one to each side. All different.

It was Gilgamesh, and he picked up the sword that was in front of him. It just happened to be Odin's sword Zantesuken, Gilgamesh looked at the blade with small smirk, what unfortunate luck for his enemy.

Then he disappeared with the sword in a blur of amazing quickness, suddenly appearing behind Catoblepas with his back turned.

"Weakling!" Catoblepas came out of what appeared to be an attack with out even a scratch, turning around towards Gilgamesh who also turned towards the monster.

"Hn." Gilgamesh just held up the sword that now had blood smeared across the edge. Before another word could be spoken, the monster's body fell apart in to two pieces and faded away. Gilgamesh confidently made his exit.

"What just happened there?" Seiphie rubbed the back of her head, looking around as if something else would jump out at them.

Rinoa of course recognized the hooded figure that wasn't quite a GF, wondering what brought of the solicitation of his help. But then she'd have to ask why Odin used to help them. "I'm not even going to ask. Unseal Draw."

! - ! - !

The girls found there way back out in to the court yard, disappointed from the inclination of no treasure would be found. From there they entered a chapel like room with an organ and a _huge_ gapping void. It looked as if it would suck someone in, but it didn't, nothing happened, even when they got close.

But there was a strange feeling that came when there were around it. Like they were being watched, like there was a strong presence there……….

From there they crossed the bridge and in to the clock tower, where they met up with Squall, Zell and Irvine.

"Hey guys, I hope you did as much as we had to." Seiphie said with a tired groan.

"Oh, we had had to do some things…….." Zell had a little bit of annoyment in his voice.

Squall looked around, it was an old looking bridge that spiraled around the tower walls and lead to the top of the tower like a staircase. Then he looked at his party, he knew that they were all heavy fatigued, all of the GF's included. They had been awake for two days strait through though no one had seemed to notice it.

Starting from when they broke Rinoa out of Esthar, the sun was setting when they entered the Lunatic Pandora. And spent hours wandering around and trying to break past the monsters and guards.

Then came the whole series of fight's between Seifer and Adel, It was about 1 in the morning when they actually went in to time compression and when Nida helped Laguna make his escape.

Actually, something strange was happening back then too.

! -! - !

"Cho! Cho?" Nida searched the ship frantically, going through each and every room one by one with the help of Laguna and Ellone. They met up with each other at the hall connected the passenger area and the lift to the cockpit. "Did you two find anything!"

Ellone only shook her head disappointedly, Laguna doing the same. "Calm down, try and think about this." Laguna said "We're at 1500 feet, he couldn't have just disappeared."

Nida clinched his for head, "He _did_ just disappear." He uttered with tense calmness, in fact he had disappeared. Faded away before their eyes, an hour of searching at 2 in the morning with the ship on auto pilot confirmed it.

"I'll keep looking." Ellone told Nida, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder before she left to continue her search.

Nida nodded passively, trying his best to remain calm. He was supposed to look after Cho! He wasn't supposed to let anything happen to him! That's what _he_ promised when he got the Chocoboy to enroll in Balamb Garden. In a small, discrete part of Nida's mind that was completely sealed off to the rest of his brain, he was frantically panicking. But Nida was the one that always remained calm, he had to. "Damnit...Laguna?"

With a monetarily glimpse at the man, Nida had caught strange expression on Laguna's face, one that was quickly squashed when Laguna realized that Nida was looking his way. "What was that face? What did you think of?" Nida recognized that expression, he knew what it meant.

"It's nothing." Laguna said with a discarding wave of his hand.

"What?"

"Well...I was thinking, and I'm probably _really_ really wrong about this, that maybe he was back on the Lunatic Pandora..."

Nida's eyes widened, he hadn't thought of that! With out another moment's thought Nida climbed on to the lift and acceded to the cockpit, running to the throttle. "Damnit, that thing already crashed...Cho you couldn't have..." Nida flipped of autopilot, musing that yes Cho could have. "Cho..."

"Nida."

Nida stopped himself from flinching, immediately looking back over his seat to see Cho standing there. His brown hair was messy, more messy then usual, and he had a host of cuts and burses that hadn't been there when he last saw the boy. He almost looked scared...no, the boy couldn't be scared. "Maru!"

Cho knew he was in trouble when Nida used his real name.

"Where have you been! What happened!" Nida jumped out of his seat and knelt down in front of the boy, checking him over.

"I...I don't know." Cho said with alight shutter. In actuality he'd been caught in the effects of Time compression, and dragged along to Ultimecia's time with Squall's team. Now he was back... "I just...had to get back...I had to get back to you, that was the only place I could go."

! - ! - !

And the whole time Squall's team had been doing this wasn't spent fighting. Looking back, it seemed like 10 minutes going through Time compression at the most, but it was a few hours in real time.

Then the time they spent going around this place and trying to break past the more powerful monsters in this place. Not to mention the time spent on breaking the seal in the library, that was an hour process by itself.

"I know all of you are tired, and want to get this over with as much as I do. This is it, it's almost over, the master room is just past the clock tower. We can make it through this, I've see what all of you can do. GFs included, the faster we do this, the faster we can get home." Squall told them, folding his arms.

"You know, that wouldn't have been inspirational if anyone else said it but Squall." Rinoa said with smile.

"She's right, your getting this leader thing down. Too bad it took you this long, it's almost over. " Zell said, he was right, everything they had been fighting for was about to come to a close, mission over, chapter finished…….

! - ! - !


	21. BahamutTaimat

Bahamut/Taimat

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

This chapter was co-written with my friend Erick K.O.S.M. (Some of you who knew me from might be thinking, wasn't K.O.S.M _My_ old name? Yeah, it was, but I passed it to someone more deserving.) Anyway, like all of my co-written stories. This one was done over an IM, AIM to be exact, so there maybe some spacing errors, let me know if you see some.

And lastly, the song is Faded Pictures by Case feat. Joe, And all of the girl references are changed to boy for obvious reasons.

! -! - ! - !

They started up the spiraling bridge, coming around the first turn. This bridge was steep, more so then first expected. Squall lead the way, followed by Rinoa, after that was Quistis, then Irvine, who was closely trailed by Seiphie. Some how from when they started this accent to now, Zell had drifted to the back, walking with his hands behind his head, thinking, or more accurately talking to his GFs.

'I never thought of anything close to this would happening. I didn't know how we could fight Ultimecia…….but, here we are, going to fight her face to face…….' Zell thought solemnly.

(Are you ready for this?) Carbuncle asked, addressing the reluctance that had been in his voice ever since they first entered the Lunatic Pandora.

'Yeah... It's a little intimidating though, Ultimecia put huge seals on every city, nobody can get in or out. No one may even still be alive.'

(Not up to it?) Bahamut inquired.

'I didn't say that.' Zell corrected. "I came all this way, I'm _gonna_ kick some ass for the hell I had to go through.'

_**That's right (oooo, yo, oooo, oh) **_

(Yeah, that sounds like you.) Carbuncle laughed.

'Heh heh…….I still can't believe this is it, it's all about to be over.' Zell seemed saddened when he said this, almost as if he'd be with out a purpose after this was over.

(What do you plan to do after you get back?) Bahamut asked.

_**Life is funny, ain't it?**_

'That's a good question………..' By the time Zell realized it, he was almost out of the tower. They had come to a section where a bell hung down, indicating that they were in the clock tower and going head first to the master room. The brass bell swung side to side making a light ringing sound, but it was immeasurably loud when you were next to it.

_**Sometimes you can end up with**_

'Damn that thing is loud!' Zell groaned covering his ears with a painfully tight grip.

(……….No way……Zell, Bahamut…..look……….) Carbuncle spoke as if with disbelief, So curiously Zell looked past the bell and in to a doorway that lay on the other side. Past that, he could see a ledge, an open balcony or a platform of some type.

_**Somebody you really don't wanna be with**_

But more importantly was what was on the other side. The something in question flew past, but going just slow enough for them to get a momentary look. 'Bahamut…..Was that you?' Zell leaned forward with even more curiosity, peering just to catch another glimpse of it what he'd just seen.

He had to see what that was.

On a brash thought, Zell took a step back and jumped on to the bell just as it's motion brought it close to the spiraling bridge.

_**And others left to figure it out.**_

(Zell? You sure about this?) Carbuncle asked, he couldn't help but noticed that he was leaving everyone behind. Therefore increasing the danger and chances of getting lost.

Zell hopped off the swing bell when it's motion brought him to above ledge below the doorway, it was broken off, looking as if it was once connected to the bridge at one time or another. (Shouldn't you at lest tell everyone where you going?) Bahamut suggested, knowing Zell's nature that would be the best thing to do.

'Don't worry, I'll be right back.' Zell reassured them, he was more worried about satisfying his own curiosity

_**He was more than a man, a god for all it seems (is that right?)**_

Zell waked slowly threw the door, walking with heavy steps to check the stability of the large terrace that outlay on the edge of the clock tower, devoid of any railings or barriers to prevent a very disastrous looking fall. It seemed they where right bellow the clock, and now that they were close they could see how large it really was.

But that wasn't what was noticed.

On the other side of the terrace was a large dragon, watching them, a piercing look coming on to his features when he saw the boy. It was odd, mainly because he looked just like Bahamut, or a negative of Bahamut anyway. The difference was that he was a dark blue and the bottom of his neck, tail and his chest were all gold.

_**And all I ever needed was him right here loving me**_

His eyes were red instead of green, and under his wings lay a black skin instead of the velvet red. It was like looking at the exact mirror of Bahamut, just...a different one, he couldn't believe the resemblance. Zell starred at the dragon called Taimat with his mouth open and his eyes wide, only with the vague feeling that something was completely different, yet the same underlining.

_**For a while we were cool and the grooving of love was on**_

Bahamut unjunctioned himself with out warning.

(Wait!) Carbuncle called out to him, unjunction himself also, wondering what would make him do something like that, so suddenly at that.

Bahamut appeared in front of Zell, looking with a face something he hadn't ever seen before. His reaction made Zell worried. "Bahamut?" Zell looked at Taimat, then at Bahamut, waiting to so see what he would do. "What's the matter?"

_**But I still remember how it felt when our love was gone **_

Taimat dropped from the air, landing hard enough to make the ground shake, face to face with Bahamut with the same curious and examining look on his face. Realizing what ever he needed to confirm, Taimat's expression changed from that confused and shocked look to one of raising anger determination.

"It's finally happening………" Taimat said in a soft voice, one barely audible.

"What do you mean?" Bahamut asked. "Who are you?"

Taimat to a step back with a unexplained downcast head, clinched fist, and rage building in his blood red eyes. "I remember, this day... I stood _there_, exactly like that……..looking at my self………I didn't understand what was happening…..I asked my self…..was this mean?"

_**In a tattered picture book**_

"I remember _him_…….. _He_ was standing there just like that……… and he was standing right next to him…." Taimat glared at Zell, indicating him first and then Carbuncle next.

Zell looked on with a concerned look on his face when he saw Bahamut's reaction, and Carbuncle was just trying to figure out what was happening.

_**Was a photograph he took years ago**_

And he finally did, it just made it self painfully clearer that this was Time compression, and they were in the future. "It is him, that's Bahamut in this time…." Carbuncle told Zell, who could do nothing more then watch and listen while Taimat seemed to become increasingly angry and unstable.

"I was standing in that same spot, confused…….wondering what happened to myself……I saw this thing in front of me and I knew that it was a horrible monster just like all the others, I could sense it, I could see it, I could even smell the blood. _I_ had become this horrible monster………in a place like this……." Taimat continued looking down, even more anger showing on his face.

_**Secret memories in his mind**_

Taimat was calling out everything he was thinking, every bit of confusion he was felling, everything he was thinking just as he thought it and just as he felt it, down to the second…….. "How did I turn out like this! Why! What happened to me? No……No! I don't want to be this……this thing…….in this place!" Taimat held his head and clinched his eyes tightly, speaking frantically as if reliving each moment in an amplified manner.

How could love be so unkind?

Bahamut took a steep back, not from Taimat's reaction, but what he was saying. "No...no.." All of this was running through his mind. "It can't be...!" In this time he had become nothing more then a mindless beast that only lives to kill and be controlled by Ultimecia. The only free, mental thought had been sparked by the sight of Zell.

_**Heartbreak time**_

Bahamut came to a realization, more so a frantic denial, and just as before, Taimat said it as it was happening. "………No……I wont become this……..I will not let this happen to me…" Taimat shouted, but then his voice became lower and calmer "….I didn't want it too…..I promised my self that I wouldn't let this happen no matter what……..But………it happened…..I am Him, the same monster a saw after Time compression……."

That's were the realization came in, Taimat had done everything that Bahamut was doing now………the same thoughts, the same reactions…the same promise to himself…. But it still _happened_ to him, he _still_ became the thing he feared as soon as he realized what it was. This was this was most horrifying then anything thing he had ever feared, _This_.

_**Faded pictures in a broken glass**_

"It……..It was him…." Taimat didn't open his eyes, looking down as he pointed to Zell…… This day was still very vivid in his memory. "He…Died……..and take it……….I let Ultimecia turn me in to this…..I begged her, anything to get a way from that………madness and despair after he died, after he did what he did to me, after he told me what he told me…….."

_**Like a mirror revealing**_

"I thought I could take it…..But I was trapped and alone again…….I couldn't get it out of my mind…..how he looked….the last, horrible thing he said to me…….it played over and over on it's on until I couldn't take it anymore!" Taimat roared. "I saw him kill me! And I knew he was going to do it to _me_."

Bahamut didn't know what to say……… was he destined to become this thing? Something so desperate that he would beg Ultimecia……

_**What the man is feeling**_

Taimat let go of his head, opening one eye turned directly at Zell. He just stood there, staring……..his left eye was twitching…. And he was heavy with the scent of blood…..

**_Was it someone from a distant past?_**

"YOU DID THIS TO ME!" He yelled followed by a fierce roar that made Zell flinch. This was why he was so mad, he believed that everything that had happened to him was because of Zell and whatever Zell had said to him at one point in time, in a way he was right.

_**Cuz it's breaking my heart**_

Taimat charged at Zell in a fury, but Bahamut ceased him by the wrist and pushed him back. Zell stood there with his eyes wide and his mouth still open. "He's trying to kill me……..Bahamut's trying to kill me……." Zell dropped his head reluctantly, clinching his eyes shut it tightly, still hearing the angry Taimat howl.

"YOU'RE THE REASON THIS IS HAPPENING TO ME. DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO ME!"

_**So won't you stare into the glass **_

Zell couldn't believe it, this was still Bahamut, no matter what his name was now or his, really cool, change in appearance. And _Bahamut_ was trying to rip him apart, Zell couldn't believe he had drove him to do this, but How?

There was nothing anyone could say otherwise, it was only because he had gotten involved with Bahamut that this happened. He started to wonder, could he have stopped this if he left Bahamut in that capsule? Was there a way to stop it now? And just what the hell did he say to Bahamut!

_**As he turned through the pages, the tears roll down his face**_

He didn't want it, he didn't want to be the reason Bahamut became this…… Even though this was unbelievably strange and brain racking, because the immediate danger, he forced himself to push aside anything he was thinking of.

Zell looked at Taimat, then slowly moved past Bahamut, walking towards him.

_**I could see him reminiscing why his life had to be this way **_

"Zell……" Carbuncle watched for a moment, hoping that Zell wasn't about to do what he thought he was, then when he realized that Zell was he immediately ran after him. "Zell!"

Bahamut struggled to push the opposing Taimat back again, then grabbed Zell's arm, making him stop. "No! Stay back……." The expression on his face was enough to make Zell stop more then his words did.

_**Then he stopped as he came to a page where his book ends**_

"BahamutNo way! I have to help you." Zell protested, but Bahamut looked back at him with that demanding look.

"No, you cant!"

Zell looked at Bahamut again, then looked down, if Bahamut was going to fight him this hard over it. And considering all that just happened, he'd let Bahamut do this himself. "Damnit Bahamut...Alright, just be careful."

_**The scent of an old rose from his lover I suppose**_

Bahamut may have been strong, but Taimat had at lest a few hundred of years experience, definitely stronger even more so when angry. But anger led to rash thinking, and even more rash attacks, Taimat was somewhat predictable.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"Hey, What happened to Zell?" Seiphie stopped in mid-step, now that they were out of the clock tower and didn't have to focus on a rather dangerous decent from it, they finally noticed that he was missing. They were standing right outside the master room, where Ultimecia was a waiting their arrival. But they couldn't just rush in, especially missing one of their strongest members.

Squall looked around, he wasn't behind them or ahead, and Zell had to much agility to fall and even if he did he was to loud not for them to hear it. Meaning he was probably still in the clock tower. "Wait here." Squall turned back, beginning his accent up the same later, the only entrance to the tower from here. "I'll go find him."

He edged his way across the narrow bridge formed by the hands on the clock that could only be made at this time of day, into the tower itself. 'What is he doing wandering off at a time like this…' Squall moved past the gears and cogs operating the clock and on to spiraling bridge that lay beneath them.

He walked downward at a slow pace, hoping to hear his missing team mate or move slowly enough for him to catch up if he'd been lagging behind, eventually he came back across the ringing bell. 'Huh?' What caused him to look that way was the faint sound of voice, familiar voices. That's when he saw what he didn't notice before, there was a door on the other side where the voices were coming from, probably where Zell went off to knowing him. 'Damnit Zell.'

Squall took a step back, waiting for the right moment before he jumped on to the bell, swinging across the ominously deep gap to the disconnected ledge under the open doorway. 'What is he do...'

Squall looked out in to the newly found path and saw Zell, whom he was about to say something very unfavorable to until he saw what was happening. Carbuncle was standing next to Zell defensively, and Bahamut was fighting a dragon that looked oddly similar to him.

It didn't take him long to figure out that this was an older version of Bahamut. But why was Bahamut doing this alone, why wasn't Zell helping, and why did Zell look so...out of it. 'You think I should give them a minute?' Squall wondered.

(……….Yes.)

Squall nodded, pulling himself back in to the tower and sitting down on the wooden ledge. He could wait a at lest a little while

! - ! - !

Taimat spread his wings and shot in to the air with a burst of scattered wind, soaring at Bahamut with a speed faster then his own. Taimat flew past, swiping Bahamut with his claws and knocking him toward the ground. Taimat was definitely stronger, Bahamut placed a foot back and caught himself and rushed into the air with spread wings offensively at Taimat, throwing a punch at the dragon.

_**In a tattered picture book**_

Taimat leaned back and out of the way, Bahamut came at him again, this time attacking with his claws. He managed to slash him across the face, but a quick Flare spell from Taimat followed right after the attack. A massive, burring energy formed around Bahamut, exploding in to a rush of red power, sending shockwaves outward.

_**Was a photograph he took years ago **_

Bahamut fell out of the sky, landing on the ground hard and making a small crater where his body had landed with a painful bounce. The entire platform shook from the impact.

With out any hesitation, Bahamut jumped to his feet and sprang in to the air after Taimat directly above. Bahamut rammed him with his shoulder hard enough to push him off balance, swiping at him with his claws franticly though each attack missed. Taimat made another evasive lean back and spun around sharply, striking Bahamut across the face with his tail hard enough to make the younger GF drop down a few feet and grunt loudly from the blow.

"Damnit!" Bahamut tried feverishly to lay a hand on the much quicker dragon, but despite his attempts the only thing he got in return was heavy blows for his attempts. A particularly forceful knee to his stomach that made him hunch over followed by a swift punch to the torso from Taimat sent him sprawling backwards.

_**Secret memories in his mind (secret memories in his mind)**_

Taimat roared in anger with a sparking electrified energy forming around him, the ground began to tremble, rattling the fragile platform Zell was waiting on. 'What is he...!' After a quick second of thought, he realized that he was about to use Mega-Flare. 'No!' The only way he was going to stop it was to disrupt the process, and the only thing Bahamut knew would be able to do that was to hit him with a Mega-Flare of his own.

_**How could love be so unkind? **_

The ground started to rumble twice as hard now, causing the terrace to rattle audibly. Carbuncle looked at the situation, if his memory served him correctly, the only reason Bahamut was stop like that, and _this_ would happen is if Bahamut was charging something. "Bahamut! Good luck!" So he cast Haste on Bahamut to help him out, there was no way he would get his off before Taimat with out help. 'What the hell are you doing Bahamut, you have to know there is no way you can beat something that strong by your self!' Carbuncle sighed 'Your smarter then that!"

_**Heartbreak time **_

With the boost from Carbuncle, Bahamut fired Mega-Flare, more precisely then before. Bahamut fired off a volley of smaller, white blast, sending out far spread shockwaves with each impact that washed over Taimat. Bahamut let out a shaky roar as he took in a deep breath and he fired the heavy silver ray, engulfing Taimat in the strong energy and the explosion that followed

_**Faded pictures in a broken glass**_

A burst of wind cut through the smoke from a beat of Taimat's wings, covered in small cuts and burns the infuriated dragon growled, ground was shaking more violently now. If he couldn't stop the attack, he could avoid it.

Bahamut shot into the air, rising rapidly in to the cloudy sky above Taimat. But before he could get away, Taimat's tail wrapped around his neck and pulled him back.

_**Like a mirror revealing**_

Bahamut was pulled face the face with Taimat in a strangling grip, Bahamut dug his claws in to the strong appendage with eyes wide, trying desperately pry himself free "Leave...Zell...Alone!"

"Get out of my way." Taimat snarled.

Bahamut shoot his head, trying to get enough leverage to reach Taimat but the tail was just too long and out of his range. He groaned in pain when he felt piercing rays like holy burning into his back, forcibly removing his magic and any attempt at a spell 'Damn...it' "If...you kill me...you kill yourself..."

Taimat dug his claws into the back of Bahamut's head and pulled him closer, bringing them face to face with each other "Death is better then this!" he shouted. "It's his fault!"

Bahamut couldn't believe he was hearing his own voice say this, it didn't matter now, at least he was close enough. Bahamut let out one last roar and drove his claws into Taimat's stomach, the other set clinching Taimat's head and digging into the side of his face. Taimat drew back, howling in pain. Bahamut tried to take that opportunity to pull himself free of Taimat's tail but it was too late. Taimat used Dark Flare, a stronger version of Mega Flare. Bahamut was engulfed in the back chrome ray at point blank range, creating a powerful explosion that blasted open the back wall of clock tower and dropped a wave of flames on to the terrace.

Zell dived backwards, landing hard on his back as a sheet of flames smashed in to him and half of the platform broke off and plummeted toward the ground, weakening what was left. Zell narrowly escaped a fatal fall.

"Bahamut!" Zell covered his eyes, shielding himself from a surreally bright light that came from such a dark force.. He forced himself to look through the brightness, helplessly watching Bahamut's body fly out of the explosion, landing right in front of him, needless to say completely out, and bleeding profusely in most places.

"NO!" Zell rolled off of his back and crawled frantically over to his side. "Bahamut!" He didn't get an answer, Zell placed both hands on the scolding hot skin of Bahamut's torso and shook him light with no results, shaking harder and harder each time. Nothing... nothing...

"Damnit!" Zell shouted, punching the ground hard enough to smash threw the concrete, a golden light flowing over him as he was pushed to his limit break. He couldn't believe it, Bahamut was...

He pushed forward, sprinting off of his knees and charging at an approaching Taimat.

The dragon was visibly weaker though, Taimat was holding his bleeding stomach which slowed him down a lot, not to mention half of his face was covered in red from the wounds Bahamut had inflicted

_**What the man is feeling **_

"Zell! Wait!" Carbuncle couldn't let Zell go like that, it was crazy and stupid, and as a guardian force there was no way he could allow him to do this, at least alone anyway. A shield made of diamond appeared in front of Zell, one that he ran into in his haste fell painfully to the ground.

Zell glared back at back at Carbuncle almost threateningly, the small GF dropped his head with a deep sighed and junctioned himself on the boy, removing the shield soon after. He was going have to yell at Zell for this latter, there was no way he'd stop him, the best he could do was go with him.

With wide wings Taimat swooped down from the sky, Zell dived to the side, just barely rolling out the way of the claws that grazed his cheek on passing. Reaching back with new found ability, he grabbed on to Taimat's long tail.

This could turn out to be suicidal, there was more then a good chance that this was, but at the moment Zell didn't care, all he could think of was Bahamut...Bahamut.

Taimat flew up higher in to the air, leading Zell where he wanted him to go since the boy had no choice in the matter. Zell didn't care how high they were going, his mind was a complete blur of rage, though it didn't feel good to Carbuncle at all.

With quickness, he pulled himself up Taimat's tail, sure to dig into the wounds in Taimat's stomach to reduce resistance. "Damned Human!" Taimat shouted in pain, trying to pry off Zell's grip.

He wouldn't let go, he just moved higher. "Bastard!"

_**Was it someone from a distant past? **_

Before Taimat finally get the large to attack, Zell delivered a sharp punch to his stomach, stopping him where he was and forcing Taimat hunch over. Zell pulled back, repeatedly striking him in the stomach with a strength that only came with a Limit break. "Bastard!"

_**Cuz it's breaking my heart**_

Taimat found himself unable to attack, when he tried to, another blow from Zell was enough to halt any attempt. By then Zell's arm was toughly covered in blood and Bahamut's inflicted wound was immeasurably worse. Taimat began to fall out of the air, the headfirst decent not detouring Zell one bit. Zell reached up and wrapped both hands around Taimat's neck, driving his knee in to Taimat's stomach hard enough to making the dragon cough up blood on to his shoulder.

Taimat fell out of control, going in to a complete nose dive with his claws digging into Zell's back. He didn't even feel it until he fell off Taimat, hanging down towards the ground but managing to keep both hands around Taimat's neck. Zell finished him off using meteor strike, landing on his feet, and letting gravity and speed drive Taimat's neck in to his shoulder. Taimat was thrown off, landing hard on the now extremely weak and violently rattling terrace.

_**So won't you stare into the glass **_

Taimat was down after that, what ever power Ultimecia had placed in and over him backfired. Resulting in an explosion that inanely destroyed him, leaving Zell to realize what he had inadvertently just done... He had just... _killed_ Bahamut, but _his_ Bahamut was still alive, barely, but... He couldn't worry about what he'd just done now, he didn't have the time.

_**The pictures keep spinning **_

"Come on! I know it's around here some where……….Damnit!" Zell searched around for any of his GF potions, digging into his pockets and his inventory repeatedly just in case he'd missed it. He had none left!………Bahamut needed something!

Zell cursed to himself and punched the ground again, shaking the balcony.

"Zell." Squall appeared seeming out of nowhere, Zell hadn't even noticed him standing over him.

_**(Oh na, na, na, na, na, na)**_

He didn't say anything, refraining from asking any questions even though he wanted to. He just silently handed Zell a GF Hi-Potion, watching his face grow into excitement. "Thank You!" Zell wrapped his arms around Squall's waist and hugged him tightly, he didn't know where he'd come from, he didn't care, he was just happy he'd showed up where he'd been. Squall normally would have pushed him off, but in this situation………..

_**As he stares into the glass, I'll be waiting **_

Zell finally let go when he realized that he was hugging Squall, and more importantly he had to help his GF. Zell jumping back down to Bahamut's side, uncorking the container. "Hmm………Just don't take to long…We have business to take care of and I'm sure you'll want Bahamut with you…." Squall smirked in a surprisingly un cold manner, leaving Zell to take care of Bahamut while he headed back to rejoin the rest of his team

Zell poured about half of the potion in to Bahamut's mouth, dripping the rest of it carefully out over his wounds.

**_(Oh na, na, na, na, na, na) _**

_**Cuz he's lost inside the past **_

Bahamut slowly drifted back in to consciousness, wincing for a moment with a groaning from the intense sting of the potion. As soon as he opened his eyes now half red, normally green eyes he found Zell over him, nearly crying. "Bahamut!" Zell wrapped his arms around Bahamut's neck and hugged him tightly, ignoring the blood covering the both of them.

_**The pictures keep spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning **_

_**(Oh na, na, na, na, na, na) **_

_**As he stares into the glass, I'll be waiting**_

"Where is?"

"He's dead…."Zell told him solemnly, Bahamut only kissed him again, almost able to swear he'd seen the beginnings of tears in the boy's eyes.

"Don't worry about it." Bahamut reassured him, climbing to his feet with Zell's help. He still wasn't a hundred percent, but he was strong enough to fight again. "You...didn't have a choice." Bahamut faded away as he re junctioned himself to Zell.

_**(Oh na, na, na, na, na, na) **_

_**Cuz he's lost inside the past **_

_**Lost inside the past**_

'Bahamut...'

(You can't worry about that Zell.) Bahamut said, truthfully he had to worry about it more then Zell did and he told the boy so.

Carbuncle quickly interrupted before a conversation could persist. (Guys, we have bigger problems!)

The half destroyed land that he was standing on began to shake in the wind, it couldn't take anymore, it surely was about to collapse.

"Oh Man!" Zell ran as fast as he could, feeling a strong sinking feeling when the ground abruptly to drop under him. With out a second thought he pushed off the falling terrace with all his strength and dived, sailing in to the doorway overshooting the ledge under it. "Damnit!"

He just barely managed to grab on to the edge with one hand.

_**Faded pictures in a broken glass **_

_**Like a mirror revealing **_

_**What the man is feeling **_

_**Was it someone from a distant past? **_

_**Cuz it's breaking my heart **_

_**So won't you stare into the glass **_

Squall stood over him with his arms folded and shaking his head, he, for what ever reason apparently had decided to wait here for Zell.

Zell could hardly believe what he was hearing, Squall was _laughing_, even though it was at him it was still pretty unbelievable. "What's so funny! Another inch and I would be splattered on the ground right now!" Zell shouted angrily, though he could hardly be threatening when he was dangling over a ledge.

Squall reached down and grabbed his wrist, pulling Zell up on to the disconnected ledge. "Come on, let's get this over with."

_**Faded pictures in a broken glass **_

_**Like a mirror revealing **_

_**What the man is feeling **_

_**Was it someone from a distant past? **_

_**Cuz it's breaking my heart **_

_**So won't you stare into the glass **_

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Again, this chapter was written over an IM, AIM to be exact. At like 2 in the morning on a Friday, it's Saturday now. I Had the task of copying and pasting this time, Next Chapter, he's doing it, it's a lot of work. Next Chapter, Ultimecia! After that, it's almost over!


	22. Chapter 18: A GF called Griever

Chapter 18: A GF called Griever

'Ifrit? Are you ready?' Squall inquired, he wasn't so sure he himself was.

(I'm ready, what about you, think your up for it?) Ifrit asked him, he was apparently anxious to be in battle. He never understood why Ifrit was so anxious to fight, he was almost blood thirsty. Ifrit constantly wanted to fight, he'd summon himself he'd felt like he'd gone to long with out doing so.

'To tell the truth, I don't know, because I don't know what to expect.' Squall wasn't worried, or scared, it was just that what they were about to do was big, really big.

No one else could stop Ultimecia, at lest not from this time if anyone was still alive. Soon Ultimecia would achieve complete time compression, for what reason was unknown, but Ultimecia would be invincible, the ability to control all of time was a powerful force. The only way to save…well, everything, was to stop her now.

It was easier said then done, this was nothing like what they had ever faced in the past or ever would again, the fate of existence was in _their_ hands. That was an overwhelming pressure, Squall was nervous and Ifrit knew it. Ifrit wasn't one that could give words of encouragement easily. In a way, he was just like Squall. But he had to think of something to say. Honestly he wished Squall could be like him some times, Ifrit never thought about anything when he fought, just on himself and his enemy, It would be so much easier just to do that. But you can't give instincts.

This was the last check before heading in to the master room, every stood out side the door, checking equipment, weapons, items, and junctions.

All trying to figure out what junction was best for what, and more importantly, what element and status defense should they have. Irvine was best suited for both areas sense Cerberus was basically 3 GFs, and the brothers were 2. He was able to junctioned about everything to status defense. They also found that Pain magic probably wouldn't be very useful in battle because Ultimecia was sure to be immune, it was better junctioned.

And Esnua could be replaced by a remedy now that items were unsealed, so it also was better left junctioned. Irvine did have to admit that it looked silly, everyone running around, literally running around, trading, swapping, organizing. Practically doing it right in front of Ultimecia, if the situation wasn't so serous, this would have been laughable.

'Bahamut, you think your up for this?' Zell asked, his own fears put aside for the concern of his partner.

(Yes, I can handle it.) Bahamut was weak, tired, and heavily injured, but determined to fight with his at times stubborn will. Which is what got him in this condition in the first place, wanting to fight Taimat alone. But every bit of help was needed, and even at his worst Bahamut was still a big asset.

(Don't push it, you need some sleep.) Carbuncle told him, though more concerned about Bahamut had just went through then his physical help. Learning that you are destined to go mad and become a horrible killing machine couldn't help your concentration. (Why don't you just sleep, me and Zell can handle it.)

'Really Bahamut, you should sit this one out….' Zell sounded more worried then ever. (

(I can't do this, this fight is everything. I can't just leave you in the middle of it.) Bahamut said. He was right, this was battle no one could miss if there had ever been one. But Carbuncle suspected Bahamut was trying to regain his lost pride, and with a person like him that was paramount over physical health.

"Alright, this is it, everybody ready?" Squall stood in front of the door to the master chambers, staring at it ominously as if something would burst through. Everyone gave some type of response that was agreeable whether it was a nod or grunt or a yes.

Squall slowly placed his hand on the handle of the door, giving himself one final confirmation before opening the door. "...You can't be serous." Squall lifted a hand to his head, he felt a headache coming on already.

"What Squall?" Rinoa leaned over his shoulder, wondering if he'd seen something they hadn't or maybe something was coming their way. None of the above unfortunately.

Squall tried the handle again, but just as before he couldn't open it. "The door is locked."

Everyone moaned with annoyment, this was certainly a buzz kill.

Squall backed up a little, about to kick the door open when Zell stopped him with a soft hand on his shoulder. "Squall, allow me." Zell said. Squall looked at him for a second then moved over out of his way. With an unobstructed path, Zell stood in front of the door, delivering a well placed kick in to the center in between the handles. The door flew open, nearly off the hinges and Zell was the first to walk in, Squall right next to him.

If what happened before was a buzz kill, this was enough to revive it.

Ultimecia stood waiting for them, on a large throne like platform that rose above the ground. She had long white hair, two colorful horns on her head, a pair of rather thin black wings stretched from her back and she was wearing a long red dress.

The sorceress looked over the group, able to see everyone of them down to the junction. "...SeeD... SeeD...SeeD... SeeD, SeeD, SeeD! Kurse all SeeDs. Swarming like lokust akross generations. You disgust me. The world was on the brink of that ever-elusive 'time compression'." Ultimecia spread her wings and jumped from the raising platform, landing before them.

"Insolent fools! Your vain krusade ends here, SeeDs. The price for your meddling is death beyond death. I shall send you to a dimension beyond your imagining. There, I will reign, and you will be my slaves for eternity. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."

The prospect wasn't too good if they were knocked out. That's was it, they were gone, with no chance of revival. That put a serous handicap on them, some if not all of them were going to get Ko'ed at one point. But they stood, not afraid for a second, each confident that it wouldn't be them. It couldn't be worse then what would happen if Ultimecia succeed…………right?

"Whom shall I exterminate first? I'll start with you three!"

! - ! - !

Irvine, Quistis, and Rinoa. They were the starting party, the first to have to stand against Ultimecia. And in this type of situation, the best offence was a good defense, and defense could take a while.

Irvine started summoning Cerberus, while Quistis and Rinoa attacked until then. Ultimecia raised one hand, it was like something invisible forced a strong impact on to Irvine. It was unexpected and caught him off guard, knocking him to the ground.

Rinoa cast bio, engulfing their enemy in a raising series of green bubbles, filled with some type of toxic liquid. The bubble spasmed and twitched before bursting, leaving Ultimecia poisoned from the toxins inside..

Quistis used a Flare spell, washing a flash of red explosive energy over the sorceress. Irvine's summon took effect right after before the sorceress could attack, three rays of light came threw the ground, covering them inside, and creating a triple effect. 'Thanks Cerberus.'

Ultimecia raised her hand, fading away with an insinuating quake spell. The burning red cracks shot through the ground, splitting it apart in jagged separations, a red light flashed threw the fissures. Directly afterwords the ground shot up, each part of it pulsating differently, painfully smashing them in-between. After a few seconds of this, the ground dropped, returning to it's former position. And leaving them to fall from a considerable height.

"Ow, that hurt………." Irvine got to his feet with a momentarily shaky stance, holding his back for a second. Quistis shook her head, rubbing it for a second to recover from the last attack, then used triple to cast protect. A blue shield came over her first, then over Rinoa and Irvine last.

Rinoa cast a triple shell, covered the three of them with a pink shield and Irvine cast Reflect, bringing a red shield over them. Doing it just in time to as Ultimecia cast Thundaga with a wave of her hand, directing it toward Rinoa only to have it reflected back on to her, sending a large pillar of golden lighting streaming down over her body.

Quistis unrolled her whip from her waist, swinging it at Ultimecia and lashing her across the face hard enough to draw blood. Ignoring the wound Ultimecia lifted her hand above her head, using Maelstrom. Black energy drew in from all sides, forming above her hand in an orb and propagating over the group.

Recovering from the attack with out anything too serious, Irvine, aiming carefully, fired a scattered shot in to Ultimecia's torso, she countered with another invisible impact attack on to Irvine before casting Dispel on Rinoa, stripping her of her defenses.

'Oh crap!' Rinoa scrambled to re-cast reflect, just making it in time as Ultimecia cast one of her inhumanly strong spells, Firaga, reflecting the fire spell back on to her with a sudden combustion of flames that swept over her. But also unfortunately reflecting the Cureaga spell Irvine had just cast direct to her on to the Sorceress, bad timing.

Ultimecia cast reflect on her self after words.

With out any dispel spells, Quistis took another lash at Ultimecia with her whip seeing that she had no physical protection. A long slash was torn across the other side of her face, with a strong wince Ultimecia lifted her hand to the cut angrily, almost immediately that side of her face was covered in a sheet of blood. But she started to smile, not the reaction they were expecting.

"What are you so happy about?" Irvine asked, firing another shot in to Ultimecia's torso. She took the blow in stride, silently raising her hand again. She cast a holy spell on herself, and it reflected on to Rinoa, by passing the reflect barrier.

'Uh oh...' White orbs surrounded and rotated around her waist, drawing in rays of holy light from the placid sky. She was knocked off her feet by the rain of light bearing down on to her, landing unconscious on the ground from the powerful attack. Before anyone could revive her, a small angel came down from the sky in a ray of white light, thrusting his hands forward.

The ray of light shined over her body, she was swept away like dust, swirling way in to the light. Zell took her place. "What the hell?"

"Rinoa!" Quistis looked around, seeing if there was any trace of her left, Ultimecia had apparntly made good on her promise. She was gone _completely _"What did you do to her!"……pushing Quistis to her limit break. Clinching the whip tightly, she thrust her arms forward, casting Mighty Guard.

A blue energy surrounded the group, swirling around them like a liquid before hardening into a barrier, creating Protect, shell, reflect, regain, float, and haste all in effect at once.

Zell charged at Ultimecia, driving his fist in to her stomach and sending another blow across her jaw where the bloody cut still resided.

Ultimecia stumbled back, holding her face with a light gasp to try and reclaim the wind knocked out of her. It seemed as though she would attack again, but she didn't, instead retreating an interesting ring from her pocket. It looked familiar even from that distance, the silver band with the lion ensigna engraved in it. "Hey? Isn't that Squall's ring?" Irvine asked, pointing to ring in question.

Zell looked closer…. "Yeah, that's it…..But what is _she_ doing with it?" Zell watched as she held it up.

"The most powerful GF...You.. shall...SUFFER!HAHAHA..." The ground in front of her started to glow with a white light and something large came burning through. She was using the ring to summon something, just as the Solomon's ring summoned Doomatrain. The white light intensified as it burned through the marble floors, grow stronger until it was blinding.

The ground quaked in the wake of something powerful, but they couldn't see what was happening. The sounds of something smashing and sliding could be heard through the blindness, until finally the earthquake subsided and the light cleared away.

The ground had burned away to just a large rock island that they were standing on now, above them was the same placid sky. Behind them lay a wall of black clouds blocking any exit, below them a dark abyss. And ahead of them a large creature, a GF.

"Oh man! Tell me I'm not seeing this……."Zell lifting one hand to his shaking head, he could tell things were about to get a lot worse, and would continue getting worse.

"Is that……Griever?" Quistis said unsurely, only recognizing the monster by things that Squall had mentioned about him, she cast a scan spell to make sure.

"That is definitely it." Irvine wasted no time firing a shot at the large GF's torso, it apparently was under Ultimecia's control. The shots ricocheted off , but it did leave a substantial bruise with it.

Griever cast Triple on himself, even though Ultimecia was controlling him he was still the one fighting.

Zell looked down over the edge of the cliff, he could make that jump……..Zell ran forward, using his speed plus haste to leap off the edge and send himself flying at Griever, he ran into the large GF, grabbing a hold of his neck and sending a sharp punch in to his stomach. Then planting both feet on to his chest and kicked off with a flip off, landing easily back on land.

Griever retaliated, flying at Zell with a gray blur of speed and slashing him with his claws. The powerful claws ripped through his shirt and in to his chest, leaving bloody cuts where he had attacked and pounding him down to the ground with a loud cry of pain.

(Zell? Are you alright?) Carbuncle asked.

'Fine.'

(Zell)

'I'm on it Bahamut.'

Zell wasn't too sure about summoning him, but still, Bahamut was needed so he started the process. Quistis use tornado, sending a swirl of wind around Griever that engulfed him in a wall of black currents, ripping at him and throwing him back down head first.

Griever managed to catch himself with outstretched wings, turning himself right side up again. He didn't attack just yet though, at lest not directly. A low growl created light purple rays of light around Irvine, plunging in to him from all sides like daggers. They didn't hurt to his surprise, but Griever's attack did have an effect. It blew away all of his Flare spells. "Aw Damnit." Irvine groaned, there was nothing he could do about it now.

Irvine, Zell and Quistis faded from reality as Bahamut dropped from the orange tented sky. He fired 5 smaller blast that exploded around Griever, forcing him to wince and block as best he could. Bahamut opened his mouth wide and pulled in more energy with a deep breath, forming it in to a silver ball, then with a strong exhale he fired Mega flare.

With a quick flash of light, the beam exploded on to Griever. The rush of energy engulfing the GF was forcing him back. But he managed to hold his ground against the attack.

A orange beam came down from the sky like sunlight burning on to Zell, this wasn't from Griever, this attack came from Ultimecia who was awaiting in the sub-dimension used when summoning. But the attack didn't hurt him, it hit Bahamut instead. (Bahamut! Are you alright!) Carbuncle shouted, the only response he got was a low growl then silence.

'Bahamut! What happened!……….Bahamut?' Zell called, still getting no response, it was no use, the attack had knocked him out…..Bahamut was weak to begin with, so the extent of damage wasn't known. Zell began to wonder how there was something that could attack through a junction, he wondered it worked both ways.

Griever roared, using Triple to cast three Demi spells in rapid succession and high concentration, Griever was able to focus attacks that generally hit all on to one person. The first spell hit Quistis, pressing on her from all sides and then pulling at her, she felt as if she'd be crushed and ripped apart. By some manner of her strength she wasn't, dropping her to her knees weakly. The same happened to Zell and Irvine, the spell treating to implode their bodies, but they managed to withstand it and push through. The reflect spells had already warn off before they even realized it.

(Zell summon me already!) Carbuncle shouted forcefully, seeing that they all could use reflect.

'No, wait…..' Zell looked over to Quistis who was about to summon Quezacotl and Irvine who was about to use Cerberus. Just as Zell expect, the orange beam came from the sky as it had done with him, striking them and taking down both GFs in one blow. 'No way, it's too dangerous! If I do it, your done for.' Zell thought worriedly

(Alright…) Carbuncle at first seemed to accept it at first, but he had too much impatience for that. (……..Damnit! I'm stuck here? I can't do _anything_?) Carbuncle yelled angrily.

'Look's like that's it for now.'

Griever again started working on their magic, blowing away Zell's stock of Ultima. Then Griever charged at Irvine, slashing him with his claws at close range. Irvine grunted loudly, watching a flash of blue from his protect spell still in effect, holding back some of the attack, but Griever still managed to draw more blood. He couldn't keep taking those attacks. 'He's strong...'

A golden aura radiated out of Irvine as he was pushed his limit break, 'I need something strong, I'll never get through this unless I use my best.' Irvine thought, opening the chamber of his Exertor to load in his remaining Pulse ammo, closing it again and pull the slide resting bellow the gun's barrel. With the silver weapon raise he fired the first shot, it was covered in an outlay white light from it's energy, leaving a quick streak of white light in it's wake, the bullet struck Griever in his chest. It was the only one he'd fired able to penetrate, unleashing the stored energy a second after entering his body.

Another shot of the special ammo struck Griever on his broad chest, bursting in to another blast of unleashed white energy that knocked the GF backwards in a stream of blood. The third round struck his right arm, sending out more of the thick liquid that was evaporated along with released energy.

The fourth shot struck in the same arm around his elbow, forcing griever to hold his weakened arm with a pained growl. The fifth and final shot missed it's intended target and hit the blade at the end of his tail, pushing Griever in to Limit Break as well in his weakened state.

Ultimecia's voice came from the sub dimension again, echoing around them "The GF's true power………Allow me...To show you...!Griever! Make them bleed" The ground started to shake violently as Griever charged his attack...

'What is he doing?' Zell mentally shouted on full alert, catching himself with a few staggering steps and barely managing to keep from falling to the ground.

(I don't know, but it's gonna be big…Oh fu)

'Carbuncle!'

Griever roared with an booming out cry, attacking with Shockwave Pulsar. An almost transparent white force surrounded them, forcibly lifting Irvine, Quistis, and Zell in to the air and thrusting them into a cloud white energy that formed above them during Griever's charging. The next thing they knew they where a surrounded by a vortex, it seemed to be two of them conflicting against each other. One below them rotating clockwise, and another twisting the opposite way above them.

In the center of it all lay a large metallic like ball of compressed energy, that started to radiate with thick beams of light as all of it was released . A huge shockwave propagated from the orb, carrying a blinding white light with. From there on, everything was completely silent, unexpectedly bringing about the real attack. An ear deafening explosion came from all sides as the shockwave of released energy paused over them from the center, giving Zell a cold, numb feeling through out his body that only came and lasted a for a recognizable second before a great deal of pain was inflicted.

Which is what he got, too many different feeling running through his body. He felt like he was being electrocuted, burned from the inside out, drowned by the energy surrounding him. Along with this throbbing pain, and the feeling of something cutting every point of him. And the pressure some how pressing down on him coming with the pull that tried to turn him inside out. He was in too much pain to make a sound, not that he would have heard it.

Finally it stopped after what seemed like an eternity, Zell felt himself falling to the ground and knew that was what he was doing when he landed, hard. The first thing he found was that his ears were ringing to the point that it drowned out everything around him, and the attack left behind a strong stinging feeling.

(Zell? Are you alright!) Carbuncle asked frantically.

Zell placed his hands behind him and pushed himself up right, climbing off the ground weakly. He couldn't hear a word Carbuncle had said because of the overwhelming ringing. Irvine seemed to make it out of the attack alright too, but when Zell looked toward Quistis, he saw her body dissolve and being pulled in to a ray of light from a small angel. Squall took her place.

When he came through the wall of clouds, he was amazed to see Griever waiting for him. Even more amazed to see the damage done to him, they had gotten this far with out him, something in him didn't think seem it could happen. It was testament to his friend's strength, how close Griever was to dropping out of the sky.

'It's………Him….' Squall thought in disbelief, something about Griever felt familiar, very familiar. Squall couldn't think of what it was ,…what ...could it be?….He was so deep in thought that he almost forgot about Ifrit until the Fire GF said something.

(Squall, He's still being controlled by Ultimecia.) Ifrit had to remind him of that, this was still a fight against Ultimecia no matter what surprises she threw in to it. And this truly was a surprise, more so of one to Ifrit then anyone.

'Yeah, I know…..'

(I can't believe that this happened to _him_………How did _he_ get junctioned with Ultimecia?) Ifrit sounded as if he knew Griever.

'Do you know him?' Squall asked.

(Yes, you could say, we're old friends.) Ifrit said with a fond tint to his voice that grew into something else (If you could call it that...)

Zell reached around his inventory, finding a mega potion and using it on the group. This would at lest hold them off until he could get a triple spell going again. But Griever put a stop to that, surrounding Zell with the purple rays and blowing away all of his Triple spells. 'He's not going to make this easy for us...'

Griever lifted his hands, casting a Gravija spell. A massive swirl of dark energy formed in-between them, expanding outward into a crushing wave on to the three. The force flowed around them, something much stronger then Demi with the same effect.

Finally after a few seconds of being smashed from ever side and nearly torn apart at the seams as if were, the effect's halted, leaving all of them seriously weakened again. Immediately pushing Squall to his limit break.

Squall lifted the Lionheart, watching the blue blade glow brightly. With a growing determination he charged at Griever, jumping off the cliff and grabbing on to his shoulder. (Squall!) Ifrit made it a little easier for him though, fire seemed to spread across thin air, creating a large solid surface. And because of Ifrit's junction Squall already absorbed fire, he had no trouble standing on the floor Ifrit had created, he didn't even want to think about how it was solid.

Squall used Renzokuken, slashing the sword upward across Griever's chest and bringing it back down, hitting him again in the same spot. Fluidly, Squall lifted the blade from the ground, thrusting it up to Griever with a strong uppercut. With the sword still raised, he slashed across Griever, bringing it back down.

It was working, this sword seemed effective.

Squall wasn't finished yet though, the sword and his body began to glow when he used his second limit Lionheart to finish him off. It was ironic really, using the attack against the one who inspired and originated it.

Squall jumped at Griever, reaching a height that previously would have been imposable for him had it not been for limit break. He ended up at the height of about Griever's shoulders and started slashing wildly, as soon a he finished one attack, he'd bring the sword back and attack from the other side.

Squall fell threw the air, dragging the sword down across Griever's body as he did so. As soon as he reached the fiery ground he leapt up again, continuing his attack on the way until he reached Griever's shoulders again. By the time he didn't have the energy to keep going he'd thrown at least 20 attacks, knowing he was pushing it going for 31, he planted his feet on Griever's torso and kicked off, flying backwards in to the air.

Squall drew the sword back until the dull edge was touching his shoulder as he dived outward, hoping to make it to his. The Blade glowed even more strongly now, a ring of light seemed to from around it. Some unknown force given to Squall from his Limit break propelled him a way Griever, but he was able to throw one final slash on his decent that move all the blade's energy to Griever and exploded on contact.

Squall landed on the ground behind the GF, quickly moving back to the towering rock island. 'He...won't go down?' He fell to his knees, trying to catch his lost breath, watching what ever fight Griever had left vanish after a lot of work. But Ultimecia wasn't done with him yet.

Again her voice called out from the safety of the sub-dimension. "I shall junction myself...Unto Griever!"

Griever's body was pulled and compacted painfully in to a ball, a cloudy white entering the mass when Ultimecia entered, physically Junctioning her self to Griever.

"You can't be serous…….." Irvine nearly dropped his weapon, watching the display with eyes wide. Ultimecia would not leave Griever, he'd been trying his hardest to fight her as best as he could all of this time. But he was weakened by Squall, he couldn't fight her any longer, it left him with his will just weak enough for Ultimecia to manipulate him physically.

(I………can't watch this.) Ifrit said nervously, turning away

'…….Ifrit…' Squall knew that Ifrit was alright, and he'd be mad if Squall made a big deal out of this. Ifrit just……..didn't want to see his friend like that.


	23. Chapter 19: Death

Chapter 19: Death

The odd sphere containing Griever unrolled, forming a strange creature that had to be painful on Griever. Ultimecia was junctioned across his chest, changing him in to an almost millipede like monster.

(What the hell did she do to him!) Ifrit shouted angrily, Squall didn't bother trying to calm him down, there was no point. When Ifrit got mad, he usually stayed that way.

But right now Ifrit had to contain his anger for the moment, not being able to attack from what ever attack Ultimecia was using to attack GFs. Unless he had a decoy. (Squall, I need to get out there and I have a plan, but it's going to hard and it's going to take some work.)

'Tell me.'

'How are we supposed to fight that thing?' Zell thought, watching the new creation,

(The same way you been fighting it before, don't get intimidated now, you can do this.) Carbuncle said encouragingly. (Don't back off now.)

Zell was the first to attack, running off the cliff and diving at Griever, he got close enough to grab hold of Ultimecia's neck and sending two punches to her face before some invisible force clawed across his chest and threw him back. Zell grabbed on to the edge of the island, pulling himself back up to safety.

As if this action reminded him of what he needed to do, Irvine fired more rounds at the monster, aiming towards Ultimecia since that seemed to be the main target. Right after his attack the strange purple rays of light from before appeared around Squall, piercing into him and blowing away all of his flare spells.

Ultimecia cast a Quake spell, watching the ground crack and split, red-light shined threw the broken earth. A force sent each broken part of land shooting like a piston. Squall Irvine and Zell were knocked to the ground, sent tumbling to the edge of the island. Irvine was the first to slip off but Zell managed to grab his arm and pull him back just as the spell's effects ended.

Squall used the triple cast on him to cast three float spells, the spell creating an invisible force that raised him and his friends off the ground and inhibited any ground attacks. Zell again leapt off the edge of the cliff, fearlessly grabbing hold of Ultimecia's neck and sending 2 hard blows across her face before being knocked back by the same invisible claw from before. It pierced his skin and drew more blood from the wounds already there while narrowly knocking him back on to the island.

But Ultimecia had more things then just a few strong spells. A long gray Helix appeared next to her, forcing Bahamut to create them.

'What's that?' Squall asked, he was on alert even though they seemed like just hairs.

(They act as magic amplifiers, her spells are more powerful when they are around.) Ifrit explained

'I'd better take it out'Squall thought, preparing to attack.

(No, it's useless, it only keep re-appearing, just focus on Ultimecia.) Ifrit instructed with past experience, getting a nod from Squall who thrust out his free hand, casting an Ultima spell.

A bright emerald glow appeared from a signal point in front the junctioned sorceress and the unwillingly junctioned Griever. It grew in to source of blinding white that exploded in a eruption of green flames. The flames expanded outward because of the pressure in the core, naturally forming into a sphere as it grew.

By the time the spell cleared the helix had been blown away. Griever drew a dispel spell from Irvine before Ultimecia forced his body to create another Helix to replace the one before it.

An exhausted and worn out Irvine reached his limit break again, loading the next best thing to his expended Pulse ammo, which was AP (armor piercing) in to the chamber.

The first shot went strait through Ultimecia and Griever easily, passing through her shoulder and coming out of the GF's back. The second shot passed through her stomach and exited out of Griever's back near where the first had. Irvine took more time to aim his next shots, firing the next right in to her heart, and the last one in to her head. He tried to leave Griever as undamaged as possible or at least finish Ultimecia as quickly as possible.

As soon as the last bullet was fired and caused all the damage it would, the ground began to shake. This time everything rumbled, the air itself shook like the ground in a disorientating manner, the sky a surreal image that looked as if it would fall at any moment.

"What's going on!" Zell shouted,

"Maybe that was it!" Irvine called out hopefully, pulling himself off the ground from the initial shock that had caused him to fall. In a way, it was the end, the end of this form of Griever more accurately, Ultimecia wasn't done by a long shot.

From Griever's body a shockwave radiated from some internal blast, washing over everything and changing reality around as it went, from the placid skies and rocky canyon to an endless black ocean on all sides streaming with bright stars. He was using the same magic used when creating the sub-reality when summoning, he was creating another reality and pulling them inside. This was Griever's second Limit Break Grand Cross, and had the potential to be more powerful then his Shockwave Pulsar. If he wasn't so weak, it would have been, but that didn't mean it was any less lethal.

From his hands, 4 thick streams of light shot out, 2 from each, acting like rope. One of them anchored in to a green plant not to far off, it was apparently a moon of another planet by the size of it.

The second anchored to another red moon, and the third in to a blue one. The last line imbedded itself in to a nearby asteroid. Griever pulled them in with a swift pull, all four of them moving towards the group at great speed.

Griever cinched his hands in to tight fist pulled breaking the lines at the source with his claws and letting the four forms plummet toward the group. Thick bolts of golden lighting began to pour off of them from the energy created between them, more and more formed as the planet sized forms came closer and closer, streaking between the four forms loudly. Finally the bolts became too intense, giving off a blinding flash before the plant's collided and even more energy was unleashed…

First there was a strong electrocuted feeling, before the actual collision, but after the first second of being shocked by the radiated energy, Squall and Zell felt absolutly nothing…

When the light faded, Squall and Zell were safe, escaping with minimal damage that could be easily ignored. The reason was that at the last second Ifrit and Carbuncle had forced themselves into a partial physical junction that was used when summoning. Taking the full blunt of the damage and saving them. Irvine on the other hand wasn't so lucky, both of his GFs were knocked out before Griever's attack, and whether he was alive or dead was unknown. By the time the light was gone Seiphie had taken his place.

Griever had taken his share of damage to, it finally showed when everything from his waist down was severed and fell. But he was strong, and he managed to keep on fighting in this weakened and half mutilated state. And if he could still fight Ultimecia would still junction.

Squall searched his mind for any trace of Ifrit, each time he called out to him and didn't get an answer...he was gone, completely gone, there wasn't even a junction any longer. "Damnit!" The golden aurora of limit break forced it's way out of him, and after the initial out burst Squall silently raised his blade 'Ifrit!' Squall charged forward and dived head off the cliff using Renzokuken, he was sick of this, and this would be over one way or another. The faster he go this over with, the fast he could find Ifrit, he hoped there was something left to find...

'Hey, he's going to need some help.' Seiphie thought, indicating to Cactuar of Tonberry to help Squall. They did so by creating a solid ground only visible by a soft green light.

Squall landed on the created ground right in front of Ultimecia, immediately springing back up, wrapping an arm around Griever's neck. Apparently he was extremely angry, because he started using death blows, plunging the sword in to Griever, then pulling it back and driving it in to the Junctioned Ultimecia with furious cries.

He kept stabbing and thrusting until he couldn't keep his grip and fell to the ground.

Squall didn't have the chance to use a finisher, Griever's ominously loud roars of pain forced a movement inhibiting shutter through his body. He backed away on to the familiar rock platform, watching Griever begin bucking and shaking despite Ultimecia's obvious attempt to keep him under her control. He was apparently angry too.

Sensing that Ultimecia was about to unjunction and her power over him slipping. He decided since his fate was already sealed that he could at lest take her down with him…..

Griever looked at Squall with those strained black eyes, half lidded from the pain tearing through his body and wincing when a stream of blood fell from his wounds. Squall looked back at him questioningly, why was he giving him that look? Did it even mean anything? 'Why is he looking at me?……..'

Griever only gave a smirk before a beam of white light expelled his body. Squall almost jumped when he realized what Griever was doing. 'Why……..would he…..do that? We could still finish Ultimecia ourselves…..'

"NO! Wait!" Squall shouted, but it was too late by then, a huge shockwave swept over them when Griever Kamikazed. After the shockwave there was silence, before the wall of light expanded outward and engulfed them before a substantial explosion erupted, shaking everything.

"Rghaah..."

When the light dimmed , a snow like residue was falling from the sky, all of it discharged energy. Griever's attack managed to take out a good portion of the platform, in fact, most of it was gone except for the small area they where standing on. One step in any direction meant death, or what ever else lay in that dark abyss. "He did it?"

Or so it seemed at first, another beam of light shot up from the darkness, the sky and everything around them darkened until nothing could be seen except _that_ light and the energy reused falling like snow. "What now?"Zell took a quick step forward to catch himself and prevent faltering, he couldn't keep fighting like this, he couldn't go on much longer.

From that signal ray Ultimecia rose up again in her true form. Her face was hollowed out leaving nothing but a small beacon of light, everything else seemed normal until you got to her waist. Hanging upside down was what appeared to be the original Ultimecia, in her first form. But her body was covered in pail flesh and black veins and she still boar the wings and horns. Ultimecia's body was wrapped in a velvet red cape, the only clothing left

"Dose it ever end!" Zell shouted angrily, looking around at his new surroundings before making another move. They seemed to be in space, but it was clear this was not it, this was some type of place in time. No, this place was time and space itself, this was the fourth, and/or fifth dimension. 'Bahamut could have explained it to me...'

This black ocean of stars surrounding them was being pulled in by Ultimecia, sucked in in large amounts where the 'Original Ultimecia' was hanging bellow.

"I am Ultimecia. Time _shall_ compress... All existence DENIED."

"This is so creepy, I'm the one that gets to be in the worst fight." Seiphie moaned wearily, rubbing her arm nervousness. "It could have been worse, I see we're the only ones left."

"Let's get this over with….'Zell said just as angry as before, he used the triple still in effect to cast Haste on all three of them.

Squall started with Shell, using that last of his own triple to cast that over them.

This form was powerful, it didn't need amplification, or needed to charge to do powerful attacks. She started by casting the one of most powerful spell in existence with no waiting time, Apocalypse.

Reality seemed to distort like ripples in water, a red beam etched out an emblem in the ground below them. Several rays of molter like lights streamed up in to the air from the sides of the seal, then smashed down on to them. It shattered like glass, pulling them down under the ground with it in to a black abyss like a drain, the man issue was that this place they were being pulled into wasn't really there. What followed next was an indescribable pain never experience by anyone before..

Finally they fell from the sky back on the ground, looming with a thick black smoke that was dusted out from the wall. A light shined down from the sky upon their arrival, and an angel slowly flew down.

Seiphie watched weakly as the small angel loomed over Squall, lifting his hands and causing Squall's body to dissolve and scatter, raising in to the beam of light.

"Squall….! No!" Seiphie shouted weakly, lifting herself off of her knees to her feet wearily. She could barely mange to stand, watching helplessly as the angel now was over an unmoving Zell. The faint light of Limit break came over her as she watched Zell's body scattered and dissolved, raising in to the light.

She was the only one left………

Seiphie turned towards Ultimecia, holding her cringed head partially because of the pain. But mostly because things were flying through her head in the effect of the Limit break.

Ultimecia raised her hands to her chest, sending an invisible attack on to Seiphie, two unseal claws slash her across the chest, knocking her off her feet. "Uhaaaa!"

As the strength slowly drained from her, Seiphie looked out of one half-lidded eye... She was still falling, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion as her mind went into over drive processing everything at an extreme speed.

'This…….is what it feels like to die…?' She thought, staring breathlessly at Ultimecia, She'd shake her head if she could. 'No…….I don't wanna die!'

She felt like she was going through all the stages of death at once, skipping right to acceptance. 'If I die…..I'm taking you with me!' Seiphie's mind roared in a very un-Seiphie like manner. Knowing the ground was drawing near, she realized the true most powerful magic in existence wasn't the Apocalypse she'd just felt. She used what remaining strength she had to yell….

"THE END!"

Right before she landed on the ground, seeing only darkness where she once saw a see of stars. The darkness, it devoured Ultimecia, this attack was powerful enough to destroy even Ultimecia in the blink of an eye, not leaving one trace behind.

At first glance.

Ultimecia reappeared after the glass, still no doubt finished from the attack. She tried to scream, but only static could be heard coming from her voice. Combustions of light tore threw her body, she tried to scream again but again only a static sound came from her voice. Her powers were backfiring on her.

Then she exploded, not with flames but with light, all of that power was releasing, in a slow and painful death.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Seiphie felt a warmth around her body…. 'Am I… dead…?' she thought, but even asking that question gave her the answer 'No, I'm not…….' Seiphie slowly opened her eyes, her vision was a little fuzzy and blurred at first, but the distortion slowly cleared. Everything was white, completely white.

Except that her body was surrounded by fire. Seiphie quickly found her voice when she saw tis.

"AHHHH! I'm on FIRE!" She shouted, jumping to her feet before and screaming before she realized that it didn't burn. 'Maybe I really am dead……'

Looking up she saw a large, red bird, with large wings extending from it's side, and three long silky tail feathers, one green, another yellow, and the last red. It had glowing green eyes, long yellow legs with clawed feet and a yellow beak. A few yellow and green feathers appearing scattered among the red, most of them at the base of the wings. It had to be the most beautiful thing in existence, and the rarest thing since time compression. She could hardly believe her eyes, it was the Phoenix.

"Wow………You saved me!" Seiphie shouted happily, jumping up and hugging the bird tightly, almost pulling him down out of the air with the unexpected weight. Phoenix flapped his wings to nervously, retaining the lost height.

When Ultimecia started absorbing all of time and space, it was needless to say that the Phoenix was effected. This was the Phoenix from their time, he was pulled in to the future by Ultimecia and was a second away from being absorbed by her.

Seeing the ones who saved him were all dead, he helped out a little…a lot. But the other's were nowhere to be found.

This was going to take some work………..

! -! - !


	24. Chapter 20: Time compression part 2

Chapter 20: Time compression part 2

"Am I dead?" Zell mumbled to himself as soon as regained conciseness, he expected some kind of an answer from Carbuncle or Bahamut, but nothing came. '…Fuck……'

They had been just knocked out during the battle, hopefully they were only still unconscious. But Zell found that neither of them were still junctioned and he knew this wasn't looking good. He looked around the deep white around him but found nothing but himself.

"Bahamut! Carbuncle!" Zell called out, looking around frantically for any sign of the two. They were gone, most likely when Ultimecia sent him to this place. They could be anywhere. "Damnit!" Zell yelled, pounding his fist against the ground, he was completely alone now, _and_ lost. Could this get any worse? "I gotta find them!" Zell said to himself surely, looking around again everything looked the same, which way should he go? Which way could he go?

He didn't care at this point, he just started running. 'What do I do!…Alright, I'll just keep thinking of them and try to get to them. It worked before!'

Which brought the same problem as before.

Zell stopped, he barely made it last time and he was with every one. 'I can't do this alone.' Wait, he couldn't say that, what would Carbuncle say to him if he were here right now? What would Bahamut say? The thought of what Carbuncle would say was more motivating. 'Hell no! I've got to, I don't want to go back with out them.' Zell shook his head and pushed any fear and doubt back, he didn't have time to be afraid.

He ran blindly, running with out thought until the white light ahead of him started to clear. He was getting some where now.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

This was a barren place with dry hard earth, there was nothing here, only thick gray clouds. Squall walked warily threw this place, alone with no way out.

'Ifrit? Were the hell are you?' Squall said to himself, he couldn't take much more of this. He was completely alone and lost. At first it didn't seem real, the first mile or so, it didn't seem like this was really happening. Almost like being in a dream while awake, or a daze of some sort.

It was clear that that feeling had wore off, bringing a host of different emotions to take it's place. Fear, anxiety, sadness, and everything he never wanted to feel again. In retrospect, very ironic.

Now he had conflicting emotions about everything. He wanted to find his way home, which would be more easy than finding his friends, which he also wanted to do. Most of all he wanted to find Rinoa and Ifrit. Which was an internal conflict in itself. Ifrit was always caring and understanding, Ifrit knew when to give him space and let him figure things out for himself. He was also strong, but surprisingly gentle, and would probably kick his ass when he got too out of hand and wasn't afraid to fight Squall on things.

Rinoa was kind, and sweet, she never gave Squall space when he pushed her away. She never backed down or gave up on Squall, which for some reason is why he liked her. She was gentle but surprisingly strong.

But who did he want to be with? Right now, Ifrit had no problem with the situation. To tell the truth, neither did he.

He had to find them, he couldn't go back to life with out them. He couldn't go back with out them.

Squall stopped, his thoughts hitting a swift wall when he realized he had come to the edge and the same spot where he'd fought Griever. Now he was surrounded by gray clouds, they blocked off the area behind him, they loomed above him, and they hung under him in the dark abyss that lay just over this cliff.

'No…..I can't do this alone….' Squall collapsed to the ground, he couldn't go on any longer, his body wouldn't allow him to. Squall stared out in to the darkness of what lay ahead, he started to see things happening before his eyes.

He saw a moment back at the SeeD inauguration ball, when he first saw Rinoa. But something was seriously wrong, Rinoa looked at him, and smiled, but she was distorted while everything was normal. The image replayed again, Rinoa this time seemed to be fading out. Again it replayed and Rinoa seemed to be horribly distorted. With a flash it replayed again, Rinoa seemed to be blurring out of existence.

This time when that moment was over it didn't replay, The blurred Rinoa just turned to him, walking towards him. But she wasn't getting anywhere, it was like she was on a treadmill he couldn't see.

Behind her the world begin to spin in a dizzying whirl. Then he saw each one of his friend when he met them. Quistis, Zell, Seiphie, Rinoa, and Irvine, they blended with the faces of Seifer, Matron, and Ultimecia. They mixed and replayed in a dizzying and blurring display.

Squall's eyes widened and a tear fell, a strong nausea overwhelmed him making him feel as if he'd throw up. "!" The next thing he knew he was surrounded in a blinding white light.

This time he saw the fire cave, he could feel the heat rising from the burning lake of magma. He could see Ifrit, but as before something here was completely off.

His surrounding blended in a mix of a blurry red, it swirled around him in an intense heat. Ifrit let out a fierce roar before he disappeared in to the red haze. Then the quickly fleeting felling of the internal heat that came from their junction, leaving him cold and numb... "Ifrit!"

! - ! - !

"Irvine? Where are we?" Quistis asked. She and Irvine were surrounded by nothing but darkness, completely contrast to the former light.

"I think we took a wrong turn….." Irvine rubbed his head nervously.

"Wrong turn? We didn't go anywhere?" Quistis corrected.

Irvine sighed "Whatever, All I know is we have to find a way out of here."

They where hesitant to move though, Quistis was especially hesitant "Which way should we go?"

"I think, that way." Irvine pointed to a red light ahead of him, a fire.

Both of them headed in that direction, running towards the fire since it was the only thing that they'd actually seen since they found each other. It grew bigger as they got closer until they were in front of a large bird enquired in flames.

"Whoa! That was unexpected." Irvine took a step back from the heat, shielding his eyes from painful light after seeing darkness for so long. The Phoenix extinguished the flame surrounding him and Seiphie stepped out from behind.

"Guys!" Seiphie ran to Quistis and hugged her, then hugged Irvine even tighter, reluctant to let go.

"Seiphie? Is that what it thing it is?" Quistis queried, looking at the bird in awe.

"Yup! It's the Phoenix, he is so cool!" Seiphie said, jumping up to emphasize her point.

Irvine walked up to the bird, looking over at him with a raised eyebrow, before curiosity got the better of him, saying "I gotta know." as he snatched a feather off of the bird's chest. It was Phoenix down, just as he'd thought.

The Phoenix squawked angrily and pecked him on the top of his head, knocking off his hat before going in for a second peck to his uncovered head. "OW!" Irvine jumped back away from bird, and the Phoenix glared at him, daring him to try it again.

Irvine lifted his hands in surrender and backed away slowly.

"Come on, we have to find everybody else." Seiphie said.

"How do we do that? Got any ideas?" Irvine asked.

"Uh-huh, we bust outta here first, then we blow it to pieces! KA-BOOM!"

This place was the world beyond time Ultimecia spoke of, but now that she was gone there was no power here to create anything, leaving a black void, white in someplace, deeper in someplace then in others. Seiphie's plan was to destroy this world and get back to time compression.

How? The GFs of course, but that only made one problem, their GFs were gone with out a trace.

! - ! - !

The white light cleared in front of Zell's eyes to reveal his dorm.

"Huh?" Zell looked around, 'How did I end up here?' Every thing seemed to be just as he left it.

He was tempted to go outside but he headed towards his bedroom since he just appeared in his dorm room, checking out the rest of the place for changes. After a few moments Zell came to his bedroom and paused at the door, hearing a slight rustling inside. 'Huh?'

He found Carbuncle on the bed, laying there, just waiting for something. He'd never seen anyone look so depressed. "Carbuncle?"

At the sound of his name the GF's ears twitched a little and his eyes widened. In a green blur Carbuncle jumped off the bed and in to Zell's arms, Zell barely caught him.

He burred his face in to Zell's chest, the could feel warm tears seeping through his clothing. "I thought if I just waited here……" Carbuncle's voice trailed off as if the rest was too painful to say, which after hearing what Carbuncle said next made Zell wonder exactly what Carbuncle hadn't wanted to say "……I thought you were dead, I looked everywhere for you, I couldn't find you…." Carbuncle managed to contain most of the tears and sobs when he looked up at Zell.

"I didn't know what happened to you, I didn't think I could make it back on my own. " Zell smiled, rubbing Carbuncle's head in a hold that pushed his ears down. "I'm so happy you made it out of there alive! I just focused on you guys…" Speaking of 'you guys'... "Where's Bahamut?" Zell asked looking around.

"I don't know….I-I thought he was with you." Carbuncle steadied his gaze downward, holding back any other emotions except his concern for the missing dragon.

Zell sighed, looking down at Carbuncle, "I have to go find him."

Carbuncle nodded "Yeah, let's go...Uh?" Carbuncle waited, surprised when Zell didn't move, he could feel the boy still looking down at him.

"I wanna take you with be but you have to stay here."

Carbuncle looked up at him, but Zell couldn't seem to maintain eye contact and looked away towards the ground. "But why?"

"I need you here, I'll never make it back if I don't have you to focus on. It's because of you that I got it here in the first place."

Carbuncle looked at him confused at first, then just looked down when he finally realized what Zell was talking about, burying his face in the boy's chest again. "I….can't let you do this alone. It's too dangerous, I couldn't live with myself if I let you do this by yourself." Carbuncle's voice was muffled, and if Zell wasn't mistaken he sounded angry and the small GF was actually biting him.

"Carbuncle, I know you worried about me, but I can handle it. But I'll never make it back if don't have you here." Zell was right, he could focus on this room, but he'd never be able to get the time right, or here at all for that matter. Carbuncle knew this..

Carbuncle sprang out of Zell's arms and back on to the bed a fairly great distance away, landing with his back turned to Zell. "……….."

"Carbuncle…….I'm sorry, but I need you here."

"Alright, I won't leave Ok!" Carbuncle shouted angrily, laying his head on top of his paws. "I promise I'll be here until you come back..." Carbuncle's voice became considerably lower when he said the next part, the anger fading away for the moment. "I'll die here if I have to, just come back, ok?"

"Alright." Zell nodded, though he hated to leave Carbuncle angry like this he had no choice but to turn to leave... but he stopped after taking a few steps. He knew this feeling, he felt Carbuncle junctioned himself. It would mean nothing when Zell went back through Time compression by himself.

Well….Not physically at lest, but it meant something.

Zell just smiled, about to turn around and say something only knowing Carbuncle it was no use, he knew Carbuncle still had his back turned. And all the persuasion in the world would make him face Zell at that moment. 'Sorry...I really didn't want to leave you but...'

Zell began to focus on Bahamut, trying his best to get to him. The bright white light from before started surrounded him again, in the blink of an eye he was back in the world beyond time.

'No wait! If I'm here, there's no way I could have went through time compression to get back………Was it _rea_l?……' Zell thought, he looked around, still seeing nothing but white light. This just looked so hopeless.

He felt something…….it was a Junction, but it was weak. To weak to summon, to weak the even tell what GF was there if one at all. To weak to mean anything, but after Junctioning for so long, he could feel it even if it was that weak.

That wasn't just some dream, Zell could still feel the tears from Carbuncle in a wet spot on the center of his chest as well as the bite mark. 'Carbuncle must have been really pissed to bit me...' That's what pulled him out of this place, Carbuncle. Zell needed him more then he first realized……..

'Bahamut? Where the hell are you? I gonna kill you for leaving me alone like this.'

! -! - !


	25. Chapter 21: Time compression part 3

Chapter 21: Time compression part 3

"Squall…..?"

'Is someone calling me…' Squall was unconscious, but that sound pulled enough of his mind awake for coherent think. Not much else though.

"Squall?……wake up…."

'Who is that?'

"Come on Squall! Get up!" Squall felt two strong hands shaking him forcibly.

'Is that….Ifrit?'

"….Squall…" He felt the shaking stop and the familiar touch leave.

'Ifrit! Wait!' Squall found himself unable to move, as much as he tried, despite all his attempts to pry his eyes open or lift a finger. What it ever it was left there was only silence now, he was alone again.

'Ifrit!……..Damnit! What's wrong with me..'

He felt a soft embrace surrounding him, with that Ifrit junctioned himself to Squall.

(Squall?)

'Ifrit! What happened to you!'

(I'm not sure, I was knocked out by Ultimecia….I don't know what happened after that. When I woke up, I was drifting through time.)

'I thought I was dead.'

(You should probably open your eyes then…you know…..just to make sure.) Ifrit almost said this teasingly, Squall ignored that tone in his voice and tried to open his eyes.

'I can't do it, I can't move at all.'

(Squall, you can, just try.)

'What do you mean, I am trying!' Squall kept trying, still unable to do so. 'I can't do it!' Squall yelled angrily.

(Can't? You don't seem like the type of person that would say 'I can't do it.' Come on Squall, you _can_ do it.)

'I'm trying Ifrit….It's not working, I can't move…….What's wrong with me?'

(You'll be able to see it once you open your eyes.)

'This is starting to get frustrating.'

(If you can't do it alone, I'll lend you my strength.)

'Wait….you said……..'seem like'' Squall's mind flared with a realization, maybe he'd been to dazed to see it before but... '……Ifrit knows me, your not Ifrit. Who are you?'

(…..Heh.)

Squall felt something surround him, it was like heat and electricity flowing at the same time. He knew this feeling, he felt it before. 'Your….Griever?'

(Open your eyes.)

Squall found it easy to open his eyes now, it was like waking up from a dream...and finding yourself in another one. He was surrounded by white light and strange sounds. From this he could tell he was back in to time compression. He could get back now.

But where was Ifrit?

'Griever?'

(Yes?)

'Where did you come from?'

(You brought me here.) By brought me here, Griever meant Summon.

'But…..I didn't.' Squall looked over himself, noticing there was a small, silver metallic light glowing from his ring. That was it, that's how Ultimecia summoned Griever before.

It was like Solomon's ring, It must have held Griever's power. And if it was in the ring then, 'You were the one that saved Rinoa during the Lunar cry?'

(Hn)

'Thank you.' Squall said gratefully..

(……)

The strange sounds grew louder, there was something here…….or he was getting closer to something. 'Where's Ifrit?'

(I don't know.)

'Damnit!.' Squall knew he had to find him, and now that he had Griever with him, it would be a lot easier.

The white surroundings started to blend and mix with black, creating a swirling whirlpool. Squall looked around again, not like he had any other choices. So he apprehensively entered it, watching his vision distort again.

When it returned to normal he found that he was falling through the sky. "What the!" He landed on a large chunk of land, which was no help because it was also falling. Something was coming at him from above, Squall hear it, but couldn't see it.

Rising his sword defensively, Squall looked around, ready for whatever it was.

Squall felt something grab him by the waist, 2 strong arms wrapping around him and lifting him up off of the descending rock. This touch felt vaguely familiar, at first he thought it was Ifrit, but this grip was different then his.

Squall looked up to see Griever carrying him of the falling island. His Claws weren't out, and the two blades on his elbow had been retracted so that he wouldn't hurt the human.

Something large fell from the air, smashing through the island and turning it in to nothing more then dust and debris. Griever stretched his wings, landing on the ground and setting Squall down.

"Thank you." Squall nodded gratefully as the GF removed his grip from the boy.

"Hn."

_Crash..._

"What was that?" Squall looked around for the source, he was sure what ever smashed the rock before had hit the ground, but apparently it hadn't. Griever pointed upwards at some monster much to high to see clearly, at least with human eyes.

"I'll stop it, you'll have to handle what's down here by yourself." Griever said before the claws and the blades protrude out and he flew upward at the unknown monster at an unprecedented speed. Squall wasn't sure what he was talking about, but he was fairly certain he was about to find out.

Which made him remember, he didn't have a junction.

! - ! - !

"Hey, this looks familiar." Irvine realized, they had come to this strange void that was purple inside and seemed to have a small vacuum to. It was the same void that was in Ultimecia castle.

(IRVINE MOVE!) Cerberus shouted, Irvine waste no time moving back, as well as pulling Seiphie and Quistis back with him. Before they had time to complain about the abrupt pull, a large monster landed in front of them. Not just any monster, the strongest in the world, Omega weapon.

It's body had blue and silver stripes with glowing red eyes. It was clearly a centaur by shape, with sharp claws and a strong gray tail. The most defining feature had to be the what seemed like a second face under it's stomach, complete with sharp teeth.

Cerberus appeared under Irvine, abruptly lifting the boy on his back, and the Brothers were at his side.

"Irvine, this is it! I think we can blow are way out from that thing!" Seiphie pointing to the void now behind Omega.

"Go for it." Irvine said.

"I can't do it alone, I'll need some help." Seiphie grabbed Quistis by her arms and pulled her abruptly "You think you can handle this with out Quistis?"

By the time Irvine looked over the woman in question, Quistis was already by Seiphie and they both had some how got behind Omega with out the weapon noticing.

"Yeah, I think we can handle it, how tough could he be?" Irvine shrugged, tilting his hat up a little.

Omega let out a monstrous roar, swiping his claws at Cerberus's center head. Omega was amazingly fast, faster then any of them. All three parts of Cerberus growled in pain at the claw marks across his face, he had just realized how powerful this monster really was.

Irvine jumped off the beast, letting Cerberus go about his usual strategy. Irvine wasn't going to take any chances on this fight, he started off with an Aura spell he'd drawn from Seifer back in the past.

Sacred (the smaller brother) turned towards Irvine and cast Protect, while Minataur (the larger brother) cast haste.

The face, which was Omega's core, began to shift a little and open it's mouth wide. It used it's Iron Pillar, blasting a beam of intensive, streaking silver energy at Sacred. The beam covered and devoured the small GF all at once.

When the beam subsided, Sacred's body was reveled showing that he was holding his hammer in front of his face. He did his best to block the beam but with no success, he was smoldering and his armor was scorched, but he was alright. The damage was quickly healed, reminding Irvine that he and his brother were invincible when on the ground.

With a small smirk, Sacred lifted his hammer and pounded it in to the ground.

The ground bucked in to a powerful earthquake equivalent to a Quake spell. The faltering earth almost made the weapon tumble, but it held it's ground and remained standing during the attack.

With triple in effect each head of Cerberus cast haste, making the beast three times as fast.

Irvine, reaching limit break on a count of Aura, loaded the most powerful bullets he had left in the chamber, AP. Snapping the gun shut and lifting it he fired the rounds in to the weapon, one in to it's chest, another into it's core, another to the head, another in to it's stomach, and the last round he had time to shoot in to it's stomach.

The attack didn't seem to faze the weapon much, It only roared, an invisible shockwave of air busting outward. "Oh man! Do you feel that bro?" Minataur looked over at his older brother nervously, Irvine wasn't sure why they were so worried. It must have been a brotherly thing.

Sacred nodded with a gulp, "Yeah."

Omega ascended off the ground and slowly rose in to the air, it's arms stretched out extended to it's side. It's open hands began to glow, filling with energy, preparing to use Tierra break. With the energy built visibly the weapon thrust it's hands forward, throwing a ray of discharged energy of towards Irvine, then it thrust it's other hand forward, doing the same.

The Brothers charged, jumping in front of Irvine, blocking the blow of the blasts. They were able to take the first two, powerful impacts burst struck their chest hard enough to knock the wind out of them. But Omega kept pulling back it's arms, thrusting it's hands forward and sending more and more of the blast. A strangled cry of pain tore from both brothers, the repeating explosions nearly loud enough to drown their voices out. But the pair held their ground, protecting Irvine.

"Guys……." Irvine was speechless for a moment, the two GF's seemed barely alive after taking so much damage that he couldn't hope to ever stand up to being a human. He quickly snapped out of it when he saw how much pain they were in. "Are you guys alright?" Again he reached his limit break, quickly shifting his ammo to scatter shot. Seeing they were still in front of him placed the barrel of the gun on their side by side shoulders and opened fire. The round burst in the apart in the air, scattering in to fragments that intercepted the incoming rays, making them prematurely explode.

That gave the brother's enough time to get ready. They clinched there hammers, drawing them back at their sides anticipatingly

"Alright, let a few of um through!" Both Brothers's voice rang out in harmony. Irvine eased on the firing, steeping out of their way.

"I bet I can hit more then you big brother." Minataur said in a very childish manner, he must have been younger then he looked.

"Bet you can't!" Sacred said a mater of factly tone. They used the hammers like bats, each brother slamming the heads of weapons in to a ray and sending them flying at Omega. With a new found speed, they struck the third ray at the same time, sending it bouncing back to the weapon with high velocity. Right before the blast struck the weapon.

Irvine shook his head and looked back at Cerberus "Those guys are having way too much fun with this."

When It's own attack struck It Omega stopped unleashing the breaks, leaving only one remaining. Minataur and Sacred glanced at each other with a small nod before they both jumped in to the air. "MINE!" Pulling the Hammer's back over their shoulder and striking the ray with full strength.

It charged at Omega with more speed then the last, striking the weapon in the head and relaying it back. "That was mine!" Minataur grabbed the smaller yet older Sacred and threw him at the weapon.

"WHAAAAA!" The yellow horned GF impacted it dead in the chest, knocking throwing upward in to the air with a pained outcry.

Cerberus jumped from behind Irvine and lunched himself in the air, in a red and white blur he rose above Weapon easily. Cerberus drove all three of his heads in to Omega, sending it diving head first towards the ground. Minataur, still in the air from the previous jump, lifted his hammer over his head and drove it in to the falling Omega's chest, slamming him in to the ground.

In another white and red blur, Cerberus came down on Omega, stomping him with amazing pressure.

After this powerful combination attacks was just inflicted, it would be expected that that Omega would be down an out. But the Weapon climbed to it's feet, more enraged then ever.

! - ! - !

'Great, where am I now?' Zell though cynically, he was swimming through water as far as he could tell. This couldn't be real water, it had to be some form of time compression in visual representation. He'd been swimming upward for a few seconds now, and his breath was still holding, and he'd look like he'd make it to the surface.

If that _was_ the surface.

The water was like fog, through the blue mist Zell could began to see a figure drifting above him. 'Huh?' What could that have possibly been? Zell hoped it wasn't some type of monster, he couldn't hold his breath long enough to fight anything under water. Getting closer he could see it was a person, who looked familiar though he could barely tell in the low visibility.

This person was floating with their knees drawn up against their chest held tightly in to their arms. 'It can't be?...It is!' Zell recognized this person now, it was Squall's GF Ifrit, and he was in water which couldn't be good. But what was he doing here, alone?

'Ifrit? He must know were Squall is, but what is he doing here?'

Zell drifted beside him, tapping him slightly, seeing he didn't move Zell wrapped his arms around Ifrit's waist and swam the gap between him and the surface. Ifrit jumped weakly when he felt the air against his head, gasping loudly with starved breaths. Clearly this water was hurting him from the look on his face and the way he was cringing.

Ifrit coughed the water out of his lungs, some how he managed not to drown under there. Looking around he could see nothing but water in every direction, the flame GF silently cursed to himself.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" Zell asked,

"I don't know... I just woke up here when you came. Where's Squall?" Ifrit seemed unusually hopeful, he was sure Zell had to know.

To bad he didn't. "I don't know, I haven't seen anyone." Zell shook his head disappointedly.

Ifrit cursed to himself again, "Have you seen Bahamut?" Zell asked, Ifrit only shook his head no, causing the boy to let out a disappointed sigh.

"I'd say your getting close though." Ifrit told him, pointing to an image in the water.

It was like an image, a reflection of MegaFlare as if it was coming up from the depths, Zell had even flinched as if it was. Zell looked up, but found nothing above him to cause that reflection, and when he looked back, it was gone. He pounded his fist into the water angrily. "Damn! I have to go………Will you be alright by yourself?" Zell asked, knowing Squall would literally kill him if he left Ifrit in a place like this, in an ocean.

Ifrit nodded again, Zell looked at him unsurely for a moment but knowing he couldn't waist any more time he dived in the water again.

Well, it'd be easier for Ifrit to find Squall now that he was awake.

! - ! - !

Surrounded by darkness, he found it and nothing else, he only could hear himself and nothing else. It would have been enough to invoke fear in a normal person.

All he knew was that he had to get out of here.

Bahamut found himself hoping that Zell was safe upon reawaking , but he didn't know the outcome of the battle, only making him more unsure. When he was knocked out things weren't looking good, he just hoped...

"Bahamut! I know your around here somewhere!"

He heard Zell's voice and immediately he looked around frantically for the source but he couldn't tell which direction it had come from. 'Damn...' Bahamut closed his green eyes, doing the only thing he was sure would work and began concentrating on the junction. A junction went both ways, not just giving power to the one who junction's the GF, but the GF gains power and strength as the one who junctioned it dose. Bahamut and Zell had a strong bond because of how strong they had grown together so quickly, all he had to do was use it to his advantage.

Bahamut spread his wings and faded out of the darkness, drifting in to the sub-dimension used when summoning.

! - ! - !

Zell found himself walking through someplace deep underground, maybe some type of cave or a place underwater as far as he could tell from the leaking. Vines and undergrowth had grown over most things, this place had been left unattended for along time. This was the bottom of the Deep Sea Research center.

This very bottom where all of the digging had once took place, now there was only an open space next to a large pool of water and a rusted machine in the far comer of the room with moss growing in a thick layer over it. Zell walked up to the old machine, checking if it was still usable, and what was it's purpose.

He wished now that he'd finished checking this place out after he fought Bahamut, maybe he would know which way was out. Why didn't he explore this place?...Oh yeah, Nida had a heart attack.

"Oh yeah..."

He heard a small gust of wind from the above, but dismissed it as nothing.


	26. Chapter 22: Junction Finale

Chapter 22: Junction Finale!

Carbuncle let out a deep sigh, still sitting on his now usual spot on the bed, no, it was Zell's bed, he had to remember that. He had to keep telling himself that even though in reality it had become his bed, as long as he'd been there. 4 years, he waited for Zell to return faithfully but each day nothing came.

He'd always wonder, was it just four years in real time here, and 4 minutes in time compression? Or had it been really 4 years for Zell and he'd...died or something of that sort. Carbuncle never really left though, even after year 3 when it got completely unsure.

Nobody bothered him much anymore, they just accepted the fact that he wasn't moving. They couldn't force him, he could easy make sure that no one got in to the room with his shielding ability. They also had to accept the fact that he wasn't going to junction either, if he helped someone else then he'd have to break his junction with Zell. No way in hell that was happening, not even if he couldn't even feel it in the slightest bit anymore and wandered if it was still there more times then he cared to admit. No way! Not a chance! No!...he felt like he was over compensating for his previous doubt, and he was.

The only person who really acknowledge this any more was Nida, and Chocoboy, a new student Nida had given the nickname Cho.

All the money he swindled from people travelers came in handy, he was really proud of his skills.

Nida just came when he wanted to bring Carbuncle something, usually food, or talk, or when he had some free time. Cho's reasons where basically the same, except his commitment to his determination of junctioning Carbuncle was unwavering. Even though he had seen what Carbuncle could do to those who tried.

Seeing what the GF could do only made him try harder, it only made him want Carbuncle more. But generally Cho gave up at 5:00 pm on Friday, because that's when the weekend started. From there he stopped trying to persuade him to junction and tried to persuade him to leave Zell's room. Which he knew would fail, but he tried anyway, he had to try right? Persistence was a good thing. As of now Chocoboy lay stretched out on the floor next to Zell's bed with his hands behind his head.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

"_If you don't believe in yourself, I'll believe in you. There's no way I'm going to let you die in there"_

"_I don't know, what about you, If I can't believe in myself, I can't believe in you."_

"_Yes you can, were connected remember, you won't be alone in there." _

"_What if we get separated, I don't know if we can stay together in a world like that." "Don't worry, it's not going to happen. Trust me, I won't let it. And don't forget, Bahamut's going to be there too, there's no way we can fail."_

Those words hunted Carbuncle now, they would creep in to his mind every once and awhile and taunt him until he was literally ramming his head into the wall, there was even an imprint left since he always hit the same spot.

"Carbuncle? What's with you?" Cho asked, placing his hands behind him and pushing himself upright.

"I'm fine, Leave me the hell alone." Carbuncle said in a sleepy voice, Carbuncle was always a little mad when he woke up, mainly because of the crushing depression. Cho always just ignored it or dismissed it, Carbuncle was grateful for that. Honestly he didn't know why Cho and Nida put up with him.

But this time something sounded more off then usual, as Carbuncle's friend he couldn't just ignore this. The boy climbed up on to his knees, resting his head on to of his folded arms laying on the edge of the bed. "...Something is really wrong this time huh? What is it?" The boy asked, Carbuncle just turned his head and ignored him. "Come on, I'm not going to leave you alone about it." Cho cooed teasingly.

"Nothings wrong, I'm just thinking."

Cho shook his head, "I've learned that in your case, thinking is bad, quit thinking about it so much." The Chocoboy said.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Nida headed for Zell's old room, his usual routine when he wasn't flying the garden, or training someone else to do it. Currently he was Training a boy named Alex, he looked promising.

His usual routine was suddenly shattered this time, he knew it when he walked through the door and found Cho sitting against the doorway to the bed room.

"What are you doing?" Nida asked,

"He left, I can't believe he left." Cho didn't turn around, he just looked in to the room stared out of the window blankly.

No...There was no way, there was no way Carbuncle left that bed after 4 years of not peaking his head out of the boundaries. Even after horrible boredom and enough solitude to make a person go crazy, he couldn't have left after that. Not after all of that, not with out him here to witness it! "What?" Nida stepped over Cho and looked inside the bed room in disbelief and saw true enough that Carbuncle had left.

"Yeah." Cho nodded, "He said, 'I can't take this anymore, I'm have to go find him.', and he left."

"Wow….which way did he go?" Nida asked.

"I don't know, he said something about time compression and just left. It's like he disappeared." Chocoboy didn't seem sure of what he was saying. "I couldn't follow him...I just couldn't." The words Time Compression had made him freeze, he'd had a very bad experience with time compression 4 years ago right after the Lunatic Pandora rescue. He didn't wanna go back.

"Hmm……Well, it was bound to happen some time." Nida shook his head and sat down next to the boy. "You've been trying to get him to leave for almost 4 years, your not happy?"

Cho shook his head. "I can't believe after all of that he just left, like _that_!" The boy threw his hands up exasperatedly

"Let me guess, you didn't want him to leave like that?" Nida said with a smirk.

"I guess not." Cho shrugged. "I just hope he's alright."

Nida ruffled his hair lightly and smiled. "Don't worry about Carbuncle, he can take care of himself."

! - ! - !

"We almost got it! How are you guys holding up?" Seiphie called back from behind the battle, as Quistis prepared to use her Ray Bomb limit break.

"Uh…We're holding out." Irvine said.

If it wasn't for the Brother's recuperative powers on the ground, they all have been dead. Because of it, the Brothers were able to block most of Omega's attacks. That's when Irvine used aura to attack with his Limit Break, and then Cerberus attacked.

Suddenly a gust of wind blew from behind them, it was a vacuum effect, pulling in large amounts of air. Seiphie and Quistis had did it, they successfully broken through the void, Leaving this world beyond time to imploding. "Yeah! We did it!." Seiphie shouted happily.

"Hello! We still have a big problem!" Irvine shouted, firing another shot at Omega.

! - ! - !

The darkness still surrounded him, it didn't matter though, Zell knew he was close to Bahamut. He could feel it. He didn't know what direction he was going, he didn't know whether he was up or down. But he knew he was getting closer.

The darkness started to illuminate, slow ascension in to light. "Huh?" Zell looked around, he felt like he was moving or in something that was moving. The blackness was pulled from around him, seemingly draining in to a single point ahead of him on what looked like the horizon. "What the hell was that!"

Zell immediately became on guard, he was back in time compression again. Which could work to his advantage, or just make it harder to find Bahamut. Either or.

Something appeared before him, something was fading in to reality due to time compression. Just like before when he was going forward through time and the sorceress appeared, it was happening again while he was going back. It seemed to be human, just a transparent ghost of a human body, apparently male.

The more he went back in time, the more that it became visible and less ghost like with more features until he could see exactly what, who it was. "Seifer!" Zell clinched his fist, seeing this version of Seifer that was appearing due to Time compression. His usual smirk appeared on "Seifer's" face as he lifted his gun blade in his usual offensive stance.

Zell couldn't get out of this fight if he wanted to, it was just like the sorceress battles before. Face them to move on, and Seifer was standing in his way of Bahamut. On the bright side, Zell was getting the chance to kick Seifer's ass one on one. Concerning this Zell shrugged and lifted his fist, ready to fight.

Seifer charged at Zell, slashing at him with his gun blade. Zell jumped back in evasion, only managing to get cut with the tip of the blade across his chest. Seifer brought the blade back for a second attack with an over head swing, Zell dodged it completely, springing forward with the opening that came from trying a particularly strong physical attack and delivering a punch to Seifer's jaw making the opposing boy take a step back. Zell swung his left him again, aiming for his stomach, Seifer took another step back to move just out of range, countering the missed attempt with his gun blade. Seifer lifted the sword above his head and thrust it downward at Zell, but he misjudged Zell's speed.

Zell lifted his forearm arm to knock it away, only managing to push the flat side of the blade back a little before it could come down on his head, instead it cut in to his shoulder. Zell winced, knowing it had almost been his head, ignored the pain for now Zell crouched down, dislodging Seifer's blade from his shoulder and delivering a sweep kick across the ground to his legs.

Seifer was knocked off of his feet, landing on his face beside Zell, Zell stood abruptly to his feet, lifting his foot and stomping it down on Seifer. Seifer rolled to the side, lifting his gun blade to black and narrowly cutting Zell's leg across the calf. "Damnit!" Zell jumped back, holding his now bleeding leg. After that small bit of hesitation from the pain, Zell charged at Seifer.

Seifer jumped up a few feet, thrusting his gun blade down from over his head, Zell immediately stopped in place seeing that he wasn't quick enough to evade this one. Lifting his hands and catching the blade by the dull sides. "!" He halted it inches away from his face, letting out a small sigh of relief from the close call. Seifer kicked him in the chest, knocking him backwards, before slashing at him again. Zell ducked under it, steeping forward to close the small gap between them and throw a swift blow in the stomach.

Seifer stumbled back holding the area where he'd was hit. With heavy breaths trying to reclaim the one that had just been knocked out of him. A golden aura rushed over Seifer that came from the achievement of limit break. With a small grunt, Seifer charged at Zell, reaching him before Zell could avoid. Seifer drew his sword back at his side and slashed Zell across his chest with the sword with a spray of ripped fabric and blood. Before Zell could move, Seifer brought the blade back, hitting him again, and again. "Uhaaaa!"

Until Zell was unable to get away from the repetitious strikes, every time he was knocked away he was pulled back in to the attack immediately. Strong winds began to surround him until they swirled around him in a tornado. 'What….the hell is this…' Zell tried to block, but the pull from the winds kept his arms down and him completely open to Seifer's attacks. Finally after what seemed like hundreds of strikes, Seifer's final blow knocked Zell's body through the walls of wind and plummeting to the ground.

He had to give it to him, Seifer was strong, and that last attack hurt like hell.

Zell was left laying on his back, unsure at first if he would be able to get up. But fury was a strong motivation, he couldn't stay down, not in a fight _against_ him. "No way in hell I'm losing to you!" Zell shouted, the same golden aura of limit break shined over him as he flipped on to his feet.

The golden aura was replaced with a blue one as Zell skipped over the duel part of his Limit break right to the finishers. In a near blur of surprising speed he was face to face with Seifer, using Different Beat before Seifer had time to react in anything other then a flinch. Zell flipped backwards, sending a fierce kick to his chin and knocking him off the ground.

Another flip kick juggled Seifer higher in to the air, with each strike Zell's attacks grew stronger. Until a haze of fire surrounded him like an aura, Zell kicked off of him hard enough to spring himself into the air, leaping above Seifer and finally delivering a swift and burning spin kick to his head. Seifer was sent sprawling to the ground hard enough to bounce off at first, but even after an attack like that, slowly and painfully, Seifer used his sword to lift himself back up to his feet. He just wouldn't stay down!

Another blue aura flowed over Zell as he landed on the ground. This time he used Burning rave. An explosion of energy radiated from Zell, igniting flames on his shoulders since it seemed that was the place where the most he could escape. Zell clinched his left fist tightly, pounding it in to the ground with a angry shout. A jolt of energy rushed outward towards Seifer, cutting through the ground like a shark through and disappearing for a quick second as it came beneath Seifer before it erupted under him in a out lay explosion of the same energy. He was blow off of his feet..

Seifer landed almost as hard as he sent in to the air, some how, Seifer managed to get to his knees, his body on the brink of faltering. He used the last of his strength to stand up, in that usual resilient Seifer attitude, he refused to give up.

"Damnit! Why wont you stay the fuck down!" The next and final blue aura enveloped Zell again, he dashed forward in persistent fury, using 'My final heaven' Much to Seifer's surprise, and despite the evident anger, Zell ran right past him in a blur. But not more then a second later Seifer saw Zell on the horizon in front of him going an imposable speed. Threw the blur all he could see was a bright light.

In another fury of speed, Zell charged at Seifer with his drawn back fist surrounded in white light, ready to strike. Zell pulled his hand back even farther as he dawned on his enemy, thrusting his fist into Seifer's stomach and coming to a quick stop a few steps behind him after the pass. As soon as Zell was out of range an explosion erupted from the spot Seifer had been hit, sending his body flying over Zell's shoulder and sliding to a painful stop.

From there, the darkness dissipated, leaving Zell back in the lower levels of the Deep Sea research center again. "Yeah!" Zell shouted, getting a great sense of satisfaction knowing that 'I just kicked Seifer's ass!' Zell smirked triumphantly.

Just as before he felt that small wind from above, now that this was the second time it happened he completely ignored it as just that, wind.

"Zell!"

A familiar voice called out to him 'Was that", Zell turned around and flinched when he found a large sword coming at him. By the time his reflects inhibited him to move, it was already an inch from his face and to late. But it stopped. 'WhWhat was that?" His heart was pounding, he could almost feel the blade pressing against his head, he was that close to death...

Now Zell had finally enough time to see what was happening around him. Ultima Weapon was standing behind him, in front of him now that he'd turned around, which was most likely the gust of wind he felt. And it was about to strike him with it's sword, and by the look of it's tenseness and shaking arm still trying to do so. Some invisible force had came between the Weapon and Zell, he could see sparks flying where the sword connected with it. 'Where did this come from?'

Zell reached his hand out to the spot where the blade was being held at bay, there was some type of barrier, it was as thin as glass but strong. Zell back away slowly, now fully realizing how close that sword was to cutting his head off. 'Who…… called my name?'

From behind Ultima, Zell could see Carbuncle, his body was tense and his eyes were narrowed angrily. Now things made sense, he was the one that created the barrier, Carbuncle was always amazing strong at defense. "Carbuncle! What are you doing here!" Zell asked loudly, clasping his hand over his chest in an attempt to calm his pounding heart

"Saving you! What the fuck wrong with you, leaving me there for that long! I waited for you this whole damn time!"

Zell walked to the barrier, looking past Ultima to Carbuncle. "What are you talking about, I've been gone a half hour at the most."

"Like hell! It's been 4 years!"

It took a few seconds for it to sink in, that was until his mind tried to figure out how many days that was. Had he really been gone for that long? For _that_ long? "4...years………"

They had more pressing matters then this discussion, Like Ultima Weapon who was still trying to get through the Barrier. "Oh, and I found our little missing dragon." Carbuncle voice was strained as he reinforced the shielded blocking Zell from Ultima, but there was still that detectable hint of sarcasm.

"What? Where?" Zell looked around franticly, anxious at the prospect of seeing Bahamut again. Everything seemed to be coming together again.

"Look up." Carbuncle directed. Zell did so almost immediately, taking time to notice that Ultima was in bad shape, apparently it had been in a losing battle.

A blast of Mega Flare dropped on the weapon from above, erupting in to a blinding light and loud detonation. All Zell could see through the shield was a bright slight light that was quickly followed by red flames. His mind thought randomly on how it was like looking into a working washing machine.

When the attack cleared away there wasn't a trace left of Ultima except for it's sword.

Bahamut landed with a small thump and the shield around Zell shattered when Carbuncle released it. With out hesitation Zell ran to the missing GF, throwing his arms around his waist and hugging him tightly.

"Bahamut! I couldn't find you, I looked everywhere! I thought you were dead!" The boy said frantically

Bahamut wrapped his arms around Zell, burring his face into the boy's neck. "I though the sorceress had gotten to you."

"Believe me, she did." Zell meant it in the truest sense, he wasn't strong enough to beat her and he ended up dieing. Of course there was that intervention from Phoenix.

"Come on! We have to get out of here!" Carbuncle shouted with clear annoyment, a vein in his head was even starting to throb. The best he could do was just turn away and hope the two would hurry up.

Zell almost wondered what was wrong with him, but he remembered that it had been 4 years since Carbuncle had seen him last. 'Aw man...' Zell came from behind the small GF and scooped him into his arms, which surprised Carbuncle at first until he realized it was Zell. "I Sorry Carbuncle." He gave the most pleading, apologetic look he could mange. One that Carbuncle had no chance of resisting.

"Hmm………I'm just happy your alright…" Carbuncle buried himself in Zell's chest again, he didn't cry this time though as much as he wanted to. He had half of mind to bite Zell as hard as he could, he was in a good position to do so, but even more so he had an overwhelming sense of relief and growing happiness, it was worth the wait.

! - ! - !

Squall had fought off wave after wave of monsters on the while Griever took care of the ones in the air.

'What am I doing here….' Squall grunted angrily, slicing through a Wendigo 'I have to find Ifrit, I don't have time for this!'

Squall found himself surrounded by Marlboros, he'd defeated overwhelming odds of different types of monsters. But he hadn't fought Marlboros yet, he may have had a chance fighting one, but not this many. Griever couldn't help him, if it wasn't for the GF he would have been taken out by the many monsters in the air a long time ago. Griever didn't seem to be having any problems.

"Damnit……" Squall looked around him at the open, dripping, fang filled mouths of the large monsters.

He heard a small clanking sound as something fell from the sky and landed behind him and rolled against to his ankle.

'This is…!' it one was the golden band that Ifrit had around his wrist, one that Squall wished he'd inquired the nature of before. Squall quickly picked up, as soon as he touched it his junction flared up and intensified, becoming strong enough for something to make him fade out of reality directly afterwards.

More things fell from the sky, this time not so small.

A burning Meteor rain down, large enough to cover all 10 of the Marlboro's in it's wake. It hit the ground and exploded in a rush of flames, incinerating any thing remotely close.

Squall faded back in to reality again, that was undoubtedly Ifrit's attack, he could still feel the heat, but Ifrit was nowhere to be found. "Ifrit? Ifrit! Where are you! !" Squall felt two large arms wrap around his waist, he was caught in a familiar embrace. It was firm, strong, warm, Ifrit.

"Ifrit."

"Squall, It took awhile, but I found you."

Squall leaned back in to the arms, he felt like hugging him in a very child like manner... and he did so, turning around and hugging the GF in a hold that would have been other wise painful. "What happened to you?"

"I don't know, it's…..blank after Ultimecia." Ifrit plated a soft kiss on Squall's neck, one hand gently resting entangled in Squall's hair. Ifrit couldn't describe the worry he'd gone through, not after having to leave Squall to face something that immensely powerful.

All of the monsters were gone, and so this place started to fade as if that had been the only thing anchoring them to it, they were going back farther in time. Griever landed in front of the two, looking at them for a second before he retracted his claws and the two blades on his elbows. A clear sign that he was relaxed.

"Griever. Thank you." Ifrit said, still holding Squall tightly...that hold was growing tighter by the moment as if Ifrit was afraid he'd be pulled away.

Squall's vision started to become flooded in white light. "Wh-what's happening?" Squall looked around blindly, feeling the embrace from Ifrit fade. He thought he was alone again until he noticed Ifrit junction himself.

'What's happening?'

He heard Griever's voice inside his head again, and before he could even ask as to why he head those words that infuriated him before. (Just open your eyes.)

Squall didn't understand it for a moment, but this time he found it easy to do so. He found himself laying on the ground in Rinoa's arms. Gray clouds above them were pierced by the sun's rays. The light surrounded the two, propagating outwards and rolling back the clouds like holy light through darkness.

They were in a field of flowers with a blue sky over head, white feathers surrounded them like a snow storm. It was amazing, all of Squall's senses where being bombarded with newly revived feelings.

He immediately recognized this place, it was the field outside the orphanage.

End of part 1


End file.
